Beyond the Horizon, Beyond the Stars
by Skykhanhunter
Summary: Big space saga crossover story. Mass Effect, Predator, Halo, Aliens, Star Wars. Warning, spoilers for The Force Unleashed, Halo 3, Mass Effect. Full Dramatis Personae inside. Starts in Mass Effect and continues into the Galaxy Far Far Away. R&R Please
1. Prologue

The biggest crossover story yet! The # signs are designed to change the perspective from universe to universe. Expect slow updates due to my having two other stories in progress and the fact that I'm doing this in some of my freetime in college. Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, Predator, Aliens.

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**Prologue**

Imagine the vast reaches of space. Inky blackness surrounds all, pierced by the light of a thousand stars. Nothingness. Everything around is invisible, for this is the place where there is no sound, no light, no air, nothing that could sustain life. It is merely the barren void between worlds. But regardless of what it is, it is still something that attracts men. Like the sea it has the power to do so, to draw men's spirits and to urge them to get aboard a ship, not a ship of the sea, but a ship of the void. Now draw out your mind's eye as far as it can go. You will see that this is a Taurus galaxy, it has its arms open and it's reach is vast. Now let your mind carry you down to a huge spherical ball hanging in space. This is a battle station, the Death Star. Onboard, two figures wielding swords made of light battle each other fiercely. Explosions of light shoot everywhere as the two duel in a most complex manner. Direct your gaze elsewhere, just to the edge of the system that it is in and watch as a portal activates and a strange ship comes through. Large, powerful and bearing a remarkable resemblance to a squid like creature the ship begins to open fire on the station. Its powerful lasers, fixed in the tentacles that extend from its hull crash into the shields of the battle station and they cut through in seconds! Explosions rock the hull as the blasts extend themselves throughout the Death Star. In the midst of the fury of battle, the smaller of the two figures escapes the blast, as do many other ships. In but a moment, they disappear.

#

Now let your mind rise up over all of this and let it move at a speed that goes far beyond the speed of light, beyond the speed of monarchy, because imagination can move that fast. Now our eyes focus instead on another galaxy. This one is similar to the first, but it lacks the size of the first one. We narrow our focus down. This small, backwater planet that is before us has nothing that would mark it as out of the ordinary. But always remember, things aren't always what they seem. No for if our gaze closes in a bit more we are able to see that there is a building on this planet. A building that is in fact guarded by a pair of tall armoured figures. Tall they are indeed, huge, hulking, clad in armour that covers most of their torso, all their legs, their forearms, finished off with a large blank mask which covers the face. In their hands they bear spears, at their sides they bear pistols and knives, a bandolier comes across their shoulders, covered with various other weapons. Last, but not least, is the cannon on their shoulders. These are good guards, they watch the shadows with their unseen gaze, noting every single movement that there is, be it a leaf in the breeze, a moth on the wind, or merely the movement of the moonshine.

Suddenly, there are two hissing noises and the two guards collapse! Closer inspection would reveal a pair of small shooting spears lodged in their throats. Out of the shadows comes a large group of figures. Each of them is similarly dressed to the guards, but these particular creatures have one distinguishing mark, a red marking in the middle of their chests. At a signal they begin to attack the building. Nothing is as it seems, this building is merely the entrance to a much larger complex underground. The first group of the attackers descends down through the elevator towards the lower floors, they know exactly where they are going. Disembarkation is quick and rapid, these hunters move with a fluidity rarely seen in the wider galaxy, they head straight for their target. Another pair of guards attempt to tackle them, spears and close quarters blades that extend from their wrists at the ready, they leap! The attackers strike! A ferocious duel begins between them. However it is all for naught. Others from the group surround them and deal out their own vicious blows. Bravely the guards spit defiance at their attackers, cursing them in their own tongue, before they are driven into the ground. Dying without a sound the defenders go into their afterlife.

The attackers move with a speed unknown to men towards their ultimate objective, a warehouse. But a warehouse like no other. Here are stored more than items, here are stored nations! A thousand nations, all of them contained inside eggs. The leader of the group walks up to one of the nearest eggs and reaches up to his face. With a hiss of escaping atmosphere the being takes off his mask, revealing a face with a high forehead, a pair of yellow eyes set under thick ridges, and a large maw, edged by four mandibles which have large tusks on the ends of them. He stares at the egg for a while before he reaches out and places one hand against the cryogenically frozen egg. Ignoring the cold he speaks one word in his own language.

"_Queen."_

In a moment, he and his troops are gone. With them go five eggs.

Lightyears distant, a single solitary figure sits in a throne like chair and watches as the last of the images fades. He growls.

#

Lightyears away from that a fleet of ships moves through the void. There are more than were on the last vision that we had. Here instead are almost one hundred ships, all of varying size and shape, but none so mighty as the flagship. It is gargantuan, blotting out the comforting light of the stars with its massive bulk, and dwarfing even the largest of the ships that accompany it. But massive as the ship is, it still needs a command centre. Into the very bowels of the ship we go, in a movement as swift as the light of morning. Standing in the centre of the ship, on the command platform is a tall figure. Clad in armour the tall alien stands with his hands clasped behind his back. There are more aliens in this room than we at first guessed, but there are also humans. The aliens were a selection of armour colours, blue, red, white, gold, one silver and the last a dark gold. However there is no break in the style of armours however, they all bear the same type. All but the one who stands on the platform. He is dressed in armour that bears a remarkable difference to the armour worn by his fellows. He converses with a human dressed in a white uniform. This human is unlike the other humans in the room. They all wear a navy uniform, whilst other members of the crew, for that is what they are, wear a dark green uniform with helmets and sidearm weapons. They and their golden counterparts patrol the bridge area constantly. No this particular human is dressed all in white, with a cap on his head and strips of golden braid over his torso. He is an officer, a high ranking officer who deserves his acclaim.

What is conversed between the two groups is not up for our understanding. What is clear is that they have discovered something of great value to both races. With all haste the combined fleet begins to race towards their destination. A huge planet, a planet called Marathon. Here is where they will find what they are seeking. It is a large planet, one of many in its system, but by and large the most important. It is here that they start their search. While they search let us watch the rest of the crew as they go about their duties. The second in command on board the ship sends out the message. Before long has passed many hundreds more ships fall out of the many portals that form around the large fleet. Soon the fleet has more than tripled in size. Three hundred and seventy five ships cluster around the planet and watch as from their flagships fly dozens of smaller transport ships. Let us follow them.

These ships close in on the rest of their teams, the ships themselves vary widely some of them have four visible engines with surplus exhausts aiding lift and thrust. The others were not shaped the same way, being of smoother lines, and curved rather than straight. They were powered mainly by a single large engine set in the rear of the craft. This particular type of engineering relied on anti gravity tools to levitate itself above the ground. They swept from side to side over the dense terrain. With so many ships it was not long before someone found what they were looking for. With a sharp cry, the distress beacon which had sent out its signal to the fleet focused. Ahead of them was a hulk of a ship. The rear of a ship at least. It was mangled, which was to be expected o a ship that had careened through an atmosphere and flattened itself on the ground. They dug with speed and a hunger that was based in necessity, and in despair. Eventually, they were able to uncover an opening. The alien in the golden amour and the man in white entered first with several diggers who could clear debris. After a long struggle they came to what they were looking for.

It was a coffin, or at least it bore a startling resemblance to a coffin, before it was a computer console. This console was running on its lowest power, but the A.I. that was in the system was sharp enough to note their presence. With a word of warning she popped up out of the console and held up a hand forbidding any further movement. For a moment there was a tense standoff until eventually she recognised one of the figures, then the second. She gave a little cry of joy at the sight of them and beckoned them over to the coffin. As the giant alien came closer he wiped off the ice that had formed on the top of the coffin. Inside was a figure, indistinct, but still there. A figure dressed in green armour with a golden visor.

#

Now let our attention come to a different planet. There is nothing here, despite its atmosphere and pleasant scenery. But there is a bare patch, a place where nothing has grown for many, many years. This part here is a barren wasteland, where nothing has lived for centuries. Now watch as our minds take us back in time, back almost four hundred years to a time when on the hill overlooking the same place stood a man. He was a tall man, slightly pale, with close cut dark brown hair on the top of his head and a small beard that curled around his mouth and onto his chin. His blue eyes were regularly spaced on either side of his roman nose, and one would feel, if one looked him in the eye, that this was a man who could lead an army into hell itself and bring them back again! He was most obviously a soldier, the scar above his lip gave evidence to that, but he had a small smile on his face that belied a kind nature. He was looking down at a marker, a marker which was set into the ground and fashioned out of good stone that would last forever. In one movement he knelt down beside it and looked out over the scene in front of him. He knew what had made this thing, he had been there when it happened, and that was why he knew the significance of the marker, unadorned as it was.

"Well LT we did it." He said using the familiar term that all onboard his ship had known the man by. "We stopped them, maybe not for good, but definitely they won't be coming through there in one piece anyway. Saren came back to the good would you believe, at the last second he did the right thing and fought the indoctrination. He killed himself though, which was, I guess, unavoidable. It was a far more merciful death than he would have gotten if Wrex had gotten him." He gave a short laugh or remembrance of the big alien. Then he sighed to himself and looked down at the marker. "I know the others have already been here to pay their last respects, but I wanted to come down here and talk to you myself. It seems like only yesterday you and I were on the _Normandy_ and you were giving out about that stupid vid screen. It still flickers would you believe." He snorted with the memory. "I hope Captain Kirrahe didn't mess with you too much, he wouldn't want to injure any of my crew so quickly. Apparently it's starting to get around that I treat my crew as they should be treated. You wouldn't believe the amount of calls I'm getting. Them and the journalists."

He was silent for a moment before continuing. "Most of the journalists are trying to tap into my private life LT, and you know yourself how I feel about that. Ash hates it, but I do my best to keep her out of it as much as I possibly can. It's not right, you know. Poor Garrus gets some real stick over the Citadel Battle at C-Sec, I just hope the poor guy can handle it. He's gone back to C-Sec now, for the moment at least, I'm leaving a space open for him. For them all really. It was quite saddening to see the entire crew break up after the fight was over, but I suppose it had to happen. Things needed to be done, but I don't want to bore you with my troubles anymore. You did a good job back when we worked together LT and I still remember that." The man lay back in the grass and looked straight up. The sky overhead was a deep cerulean blue with wisps of cloud drifting lazily across it. In spite of all that had happened here, it was still a paradise. The man whispered, "I know I don't have Ash's faith Kaidan, but I really do hope that you have reached the afterlife, wherever it is. You did sacrifice yourself for all of us, and no one will ever forget you. As for the Salarian infiltration regiment," this was another touchy point for him, "the council still won't acknowledge their sacrifice. So for now Kaidan, it's just you here."

"Normandy to Shepard!"

Commander Daniel John Shepard rose from where he had been sitting, saluted the marker for the lives of Kaidan Alenko, and the Salarian Infiltration Regiment and answered,

"What news Joker?"

"We're ready to go Commander, just say the word."

"I'm coming back, then we'll rendezvous with the rest of the fleet."

"Copy that!"

He turned and began to walk towards the landing site of the _SSV Normandy_, as overhead a squadron of fighters passed by, moving underneath the massive bulk of the carrier _Virmire_. He had a war to win!

**Beyond the Horizon, Beyond the Stars**

Dramatis Personae:

Primary Characters;

Luke Skywalker, human male, Jedi, Rebellion

Leia Organa, human female, Princess, Rebellion

Han Solo, human male, Captain, Rebellion

Mara Jade, human female, Emperors Hand, Galactic Empire

Darth Vader, human male, Sith Lord, Galactic Empire

Mitt'hraw'nurudo, chiss male, Grand Admiral, Galactic Empire

Galen Marek, human male, Jedi Knight

Juno Eclipse, human female, pilot

Master Chief John 117, human male, Spartan II, New Covenant

The Arbiter, Sangheili male, Elite, New Covenant

Kelly 087, human female, Spartan II, New Covenant

Fred 104, human male, Spartan II, New Covenant

Linda 058, human female, Spartan II, New Covenant

Dan Shepard, human male, Commander, Alliance Navy, Spectre

Ashley Williams, human female, Gunnery Chief, Alliance Navy

Garrus Vakarian, turian male, C-Sec Executor

Urdnot Wrex, krogan male, Battlemaster, Citadel Army

Liara T'Soni, asari female, Prothean Expert, C-Sec

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, quarian female, Machinist, Quarian Migrant Fleet

Jeff "Joker" Moreau, human male, Pilot, Alliance Navy

Lord Admiral Anderson, human male, Citadel Navy

Rogues and 181st

Rtas' Vadum, Sangheili male, Ship Master, New Covenant

Hunter, Predator Elder

Barrage, Predator warrior

Judge, Predator warrior

Beast, Predator warrior

Blitz, Predator warrior

Ninja, Predator warrior

Palpatine, Sith Lord, Galactic Emperor

Royal Guards, human males, Galactic Empire

Tom B292, human male, Spartan III, New Covenant

Lucy B091, human female, Spartan III, New Covenant

Ash G099, human male, Spartan III, New Covenant

Mark G154, human male, Spartan III, New Covenant

Olivia G 219, human female, Spartan III, New Covenant

Nick 012, human cyborg, Spartan Immortal, New Covenant

Associates of Galen Marek

Associates of Rebellion

Hand of Judgement

Crew of the _Normandy_

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Please review. And don't kill me for spoilers. If you have any queries let me know. By the way, if you think Shepard is stupidly paragon don't kill me. It's how I actually act in real life (Minus the not having the faith. I do have faith.)


	2. Prepare for War

My thanks for all reviews. As I said, updates will be slow. If you think this was fast, check how fast my other ones go. Anyway, replies at bottom.

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**Prepare for War**

A haze of purple nebulae surrounded the Citadel. This gigantic space station was the capital of the galaxy, the hub of all the Mass Relay travels systems and most recently, the scene of one of the most catastrophic battles known in Galactic history. Here the Reaper, Sovereign, had sent his puppet Saren into the Citadel, via the Conduit, and had attempted to summon the Reapers back from dark space, the void beyond the rim. And it was here that hero of that battle, Commander Shepard, had defeated both Saren and Sovereign. The devastation wrought by the attack was still evident, especially here, near the Conduits entrance in the Citadel Plaza. For a reason Shepard couldn't understand, someone had convinced the workers to leave the wrecked Mako where it had fallen. The attack vehicle had been slammed against one of the doors after Shepard had crashed it whilst driving headlong into the Relay. As Dan stood looking at it he remembered for a brief moment how long ago that had been, almost a full year.

"Commander."

Shepard turned his head slightly to see Garrus Vakarian striding towards him. The newly promoted Executor of Citadel Security was dressed in his usual clothes, black and blue with his eyepiece on. Garrus had been one of the two to accompany him into the fight against Saren.

"Garrus. How's life for the new Executor."

Garrus shook his head slightly. "Difficult Shepard. C-Sec's a mess after the attack. The majority of the officers here were involved in the fighting in some way. Means I have to try to train the new ones. In the midst of all of this upheaval."

Shepard smiled. "Well you wanted to have a more exciting life. Always be careful what you wish for."

Garrus groaned at the statement. "I wanted excitement Shepard, not responsibility!"

"Hate to break it to you Garrus, but life isn't exciting."

"Yours is."

"It's not. My life right now involves dodging reporters, dealing with the other Spectres, most of whom are dead, dealing with the Council, and Captain Anderson. Add to that the planned campaign against the Reapers and you have major difficulties. Yes my life is very boring right now."

Garrus was silent for a few moments. "Isn't Anderson a Lord Admiral now?" he asked finally.

"He is, but I still consider him my CO. Part of me is so used to calling him captain that I never call him anything else."

Although Shepard had nominated Captain Anderson as the new human councillor, the Alliance government had decided to appoint Udina instead. However that didn't mean that Anderson was out of it yet. General Septimus, one of the few surviving turian commanders, who had been placed in command of the army, had suggested resurrecting the old rank of Lord Admiral and placing Anderson in command of the joint fleet. Councillor Udina had proposed the appointment to the other councillors, who had unanimously agreed. Admiral Hackett had endorsed him publicly, as had Septimus and Wrex. As a result Lord Admiral David Anderson had been given the command of the largest Fleet ever seen in the galaxy. Numbering some fifteen thousand ships, every single species had donated some war craft to it, and all species were represented on board. The actual rank Lord Admiral was a turian rank that came from their old Empire. When the turians were building it for the first time they had one huge fleet. The post of Lord Admiral was created to centralise that fleet and bring it into line. However it had died out by the time of the First Contact war, the turians having brought all their military under council rule. Now it was back again. The fleet needed someone in a central command, someone who could make a decision there and then someone who could make the right decision. Septimus had felt that Anderson was best suited of the job, given his record. Now a human was the commanding officer of the largest combined fleet ever.

Garrus and Shepard walked as fast as they could towards the nearest Citadel Rapid Transport. Here they got into the little aircraft and whizzed off at high speed to the C-Sec academy.

"I'm a bit surprised not to see Ashley with you Commander."

"You can address me by my first name Garrus."

"Thanks Dan."

"Anyway, if I ever go out with Ash, it doesn't bode well. I go anywhere, I get mauled over by reporters. The last thing I need is for Ash to get attacked by those vultures as well."

"You seem to get on well enough with Emily Wong."

"She never digs into my personal life, always strictly business. The most she ever asks for is my opinion."

"I noticed you wear your helmet for nearly every interview. I have to ask why?"

Shepard's smile widened. That was a devious trick. "Well that has two functions."

Garrus grinned. "I think I know what you mean."

Dan nodded. "The first is it reminds people of the seriousness of the situation, and that I'm a soldier. The second is a trick I read in an old book. Wear something enough and people will associate you with it. Take it off, and no one will give you a second glance!"

"Smart."

"I know."

Citadel Security Academy was bustling with people. What with the repairs to the station going on, the numbers of military personnel on the station needing tagging and last, but not least, Prothean artefact cataloguing that was going on, the place was a whirlpool of people. The Executor and the Spectre crossed the room relatively unnoticed, thanks to the attention everyone was paying to their work. Heading for a small room just off the main access corridor the two managed to squeeze in. Sitting at the desk in front of them, eyes focused like daggers on a Prothean artefact, was a blue skinned asari maiden. Dr. Liara T'Soni, was the expert on Prothean technology and was currently seeking to find if the Protheans had any weapons that worked against the Reapers. She was so engrossed in her work that she never noticed the two males stop in front of her. Dan leaned over and knocked on the desktop.

"Does Dr. T'Soni live here?"

Liara looked up and her face split into a wide grin of joy. "Shepard!" her face took on a confused look, "What do you mean, do I live here. I don't. I live in a house out on the third arm."

"Sorry, human idiom."

"Ah." Her face softened somewhat, "I will never understand them as long as I live."

Garrus laughed. "You and Tali both. She still asks me what "a grease and oil change" means in regards to a fusion turbine engine. I keep telling her to ask a human, but they all just make innuendos."

Dan grunted. "Typical. Anyway Liara, I just dropped by to see how you were doing, that's all."

"I do as well as I can Shepard. I'm working at what I like best, I'm a member of C-Sec, thanks to the Executor here, and I will hopefully be joining you aboard the Normandy when we go forth to do battle."

"I'm glad to hear that you intend on coming back Liara, I've done my best to keep a spot open for you and Dr. Chakwas says that the room is always there if you want it."

Liara smiled at the memory of the kindly old doctor. "My thanks for her kind thoughts. I will keep it in mind Shepard."

"I have to go." Shepard turned and headed for the door. "Garrus, I have to go and report to the Council. You want to come, or are you going to stay here?"

"I'll come as far as the forecourt, but after that you're on your own."

Shoes had once been the predominant type of footwear here. Shoes belonging to asari, salarians, turians, elcor, humans, and volus. They had, at one stage, thoroughly walked this area of the Citadel. It had been the domain of all those who served the Citadel council, the place of the politician, the administrator, the diplomat, the powerful and the elite of society. Now that had all changed. The predominant type of footwear here was the boot. Boots that were tougher than the shoe, more rugged and most of them armoured. Now this part of the Citadel was home to the warriors. Soldiers, Adepts, Infiltrators, Engineers, Sentinels, Vanguards, Commando's, Shock Troopers, Medics, Nemeses, Operatives, Warriors, Battle masters, Machinists, Scientists, Agents, they were the ones who colonised this area most. All of them were hard at work, even this area of the Citadel. This was the home of the warrior now. War was coming and they needed to be prepared! Gone was the time of diplomacy, all species must throw aside their differences and prepare to do battle.

When Shepard reached the end of the elevator and stepped out, there was a cheer. He walked through the assembled crowds of people, shaking hands with the asari, nodding to the turians, even giving a krogan a punch on the shoulder. Wrex gave him a quick grin in return, before turning to his squad of krogan Warriors. Dan even spotted Conrad Verner in the crowd. The man had wisely stayed out of the battle with Sovereign, although he did help with the evacuation. Now he had signed up as a crewman on a large cruiser. Dan smiled to himself as he remembered the maddening enthusiasm the man possessed. For a while he'd been a little worried that the man would do something stupid, but he had apparently gotten through to him. He finally stopped before the Council audience platform. After he had approached it the crowd fell silent and returned to their duties. Shepard was, for them, outside the room now, time to get back to work. Garrus halted as well and with a cheerful wave left to go back to his post. Dan ascended the stairs and walked out onto the platform.

This area was one of the most badly damaged in the fight with Sovereign. Not only had this been the scene of an intense firefight between Dan, Wrex, Garrus and the Geth, but Saren had killed himself here and his fall had destroyed the glass covering the small garden below them. After the fight with Sovereigns Avatar, the entire area had been smashed by a falling piece of rubble. But it had been cleared, although the Council had opted to let repair work go on elsewhere so that they were reminded of what their tasks were now and the failure of their predecessors. So it was that Shepard stood on the end of a platform which was above a burned garden, smashed glass and a huge lump of metal embedded in the ground. The council were standing in front of him, the turian and krogan councillors in full armour, with Udina wearing dress armour. They were busy at the moment listening to a report from Lord Admiral Anderson, which was in conjunction with a report from General Septimus.

"…furthermore, the heavy guns we've installed along the sides of the Citadel will enable us to cripple them when they first start to come through. In essence what I have envisaged is a dome of fire coming in from all sides and slowly crushing them. If it could be achieved then it could be a great help for us to cripple one of them in the middle of the relay so that they will, hopefully, crash into each other as they come through."

"It's an ambitious plan Lord Admiral," said the asari councillor, Matriarch Avaria, "But if they do not collide?"

"Then they will be forced to come head to head with our massed forces which will have the upper hand in being able to counter with space and range on our side. The asari dreadnaughts will be the flankers, capable of taking the fight to the Reapers should they start to show signs of breaking out of our trap. If necessary we can shut down the Relay to deal with the ones who are in our trap." Anderson finished with a smile.

Dan Shepard recalled the time he had been summoned before the Council to report on all his knowledge of the Reapers. The four races councillors had stood in one of the embassies to accommodate the damage done to the meeting chambers.

"Commander Shepard, welcome." Udina began the meeting "We would like to know what your opinion is on our decision to try and make sure the Reapers never return."

Shepard had seen the memo. Humans, turians, asari and salarians would combine their fleets and try to ambush the fleet when it came through the relay. He also knew what was wrong with it.

"It's not enough."

All the councillors who had been expecting a response of, "Oh I don't know, it could work." were rather shocked.

"What?" croaked out the turian councillor, Tiberius Crognik.

"This plan was thought out by all the leading experts on warfare in every single council species Commander!" stated the salarian councillor.

"I know." Dan replied, "But that is its problem." He leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. "We haven't enough ships."

Udina barked out, "Commander, are you suggesting that we should gather all our resources and go to build more ships? The cost alone would be inconceivable."

Dan shook his head. "That's not what I'm saying at all Councillor. I'm saying that, while building more ships would be a good idea, we can do more."

They all looked askance at him.

"Simply because we are the problem." Straightening up he started to outline this terribly risky plan of his. "We need to gather the entire galaxy to our side for when we go to war. The Reapers are a threat to all races, not just ours. Quarians, volus, elcor, hanar, krogan and, dare I say it, batarians. If we combine all our strength, then we will be able to take the fight to our enemy."

Behind him he heard an almost imperceptible intake of breath from Wrex and Garrus. The only other person who knew of this insane scheme of his was Ashley and he couldn't keep anything from her.

"Do you realise what you are suggesting?" asked Tiberius.

"I don't think you understand fully what I am suggesting Councillor." Dan continued. "I propose, to make this work, a temporary Council of War. Every single species a part of it, all of us gathered together, ready for battle, working together in a synchronized fashion, every species giving all it's got."

Silence was all that followed. Into the silence a new voice spoke. "Remember what happened the last time the council didn't take his advice?" Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was standing at the back, a big cocky grin on her face. The sight of her supporting him was enough to strengthen his resolve.

They all nodded numbly. Udina spoke in the quiet voice of someone who has just been told that he is going to have his world rocked so hard he won't be able to stand the weight of it. "All in favour?"

Every hand went up, including Wrex who had an insane grin on his face.

"Commander Shepard?"

Dan jerked awake again. "Sorry?"

"We were about to ask you if you think that we're ready to go?" Tiberius asked him. The turian had a great respect for the human Spectre who had given so much for the fight against Sovereign.

"And can we kick ass!" stated the krogan councillor, Valkan Uver. He and the turian were standing on the opposite ends of the podium, whilst the salarian, who was in the middle was sweating a bit under the krogans gleaming gaze. The quarian councillor looked right across at Shepard.

"Can we be ready to fight shortly Shepard?" Abel'Idris nar Aharna asked in the slightly mechanical voice he had.

"We will be almost ready to move Councillor. What is necessary to gather our forces from their positions scattered across the galaxy."

The councillors all nodded in agreement and Dan could see the relief on their faces, except for Udina. Almost all the species in the galaxy had put forward candidates for the Council. Barla Von had been given the role for the volus, Calyn for the elcor. The only species who had not come forward, were the batarians, who were so insular they refused all outside contact, except for war, that and the fact that most of the council species had at one stage tried to kill them. The others were the odd groups who had conquered most of the Orion Arm of the galaxy. Attempts to communicate had only been met with harsh responses and the Turian Hierarchy was getting close to war with them. They called themselves the Coalition or something along those lines.

Anyway, Shepard could see that they were impatient to get this over with and return to a normal life.

"Yes, I think we are reaching our point of maximum preparation. The moment to strike is coming soon, that I can promise you."

Lord Admiral Anderson spoke up. "I agree with the Commander. The sooner we get this battle started, the better. Also," he warned the Council, and surreptitiously, the Commander, "If we don't do this soon, the Reapers will begin to suspect that there is something wrong. We need to make our move, while we still hold all the aces."

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Aplogies for lack of spacing. My fool proof way of getting paragraph spacing failed me. If anyone does know a way of keeping spacing from Microsoft Word, send me a PM. Anyhoo,

Star Wars 2136; I know that most things in the Mass Effect Universe could be thrown at the Imperial Fleet and they would be mauled. Rest assured there will be Star Wars villains involved in this as well, so everything will not be too one sided. See my story Star Wars vs Halo for details on weaponry there.

Rtas; see my reply at the beginning of the latest SW vs H chapter.

Air Dragon 717; yes this is going to be mostly set in the middle of the Galactic Civil War. That means in the middle of the ESB! Meaning that all the cool characters are still alive!

Again I ask, please leave a review. Any guesses as to whom the "Coalition" are?


	3. Reunion

This would have been up sooner, but I watched Final Fantasy Advent Children online when I should have been working on this and that's why it took so long. I know there is no Star Wars yet, but have patience, it will be here soon. Thanks of all the reviews. Beware Halo spoilers for both novels and games. -- is a paragraph break, # is a perspective break.

* * *

Reunion

"_Do you know why you are here?"_

_All around him the children looked at each other, none of them knew why._

"_We are in the middle of a brutal struggle with enemies who want to destroy all we have worked for, all we have built, they wish to destroy."_

_The children drew breath at that. None of them didn't know about the fighting, but to hear it described so._

"_We are losing too many men in the battles and we need you to…"_

"_That will be all SCPO Mendez, I will talk to them now."_

"_Of course Dr. Halsey."_

_It was a woman, older, with steely blue eyes and black hair with more than a few streaks of grey. She had her hair in a bun and gave off the feeling of intelligence that left others wondering how much she knew about them already. Her searching eyes came across him and rested there briefly._

_--_

_Her eyes changed, they lost their colour, her skin also fading and eventually he was looking at a different woman, all blue, with short hair and series of lines running across her body lengthways. An AI! he realised with a shock. She was talking to him in the same voice. "They let me pick, did you know that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted." _

_After that he heard two voices speaking the same words, "You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies."_

_As he watched the two women from his mind's eye came together and merged, forming a single identity, a single voice. The entity reached out and took his hand. A hand that was as insubstantial as a wraith. Then suddenly the hand disappeared into his and a voice echoed inside his head._

"_There are two of us in here now."_

_--_

_It was another memory; this one was of a small girl in the middle of a sea of grass, lying on her back looking straight up at the sky._

"_Do you think we'll ever meet them?" she asked him._

_--_

_Now he saw the sky alight in flames. Overhead there were shapes, things that rained fire down on the earth and set it ablaze. Ablaze so that everything was utterly burned and nothing ever survived. Then out of the wreckage came a tall figure. Armoured and dangerous looking it raised a fist and roared at him!_

_--_

_Only to be struck down from behind by another figure. A figure dressed in green armour, bearing a rifle. The figure reached out a hand and gripped his._

"_Come on."_

_--_

_Now he saw more aliens, except that these were not the aliens he had seen before. These were more monstrous, ugly, brutes. He was fighting them, fighting them with all he had to defend a place. And he was alone, even the voice in his head, which talked constantly just out of range of hearing, was silent. No, he was no longer alone. Another figure, one of the earlier aliens was with him, them both working in tandem to help one another._

_--_

_Now he was a child once more. Standing before a giant creature, the likes of which no one had ever seen. It was greenish grey and seemed to be composed of rotting flesh! He almost screamed at the sight, but something held him back. A voice shook the floor and the room and almost deafened him as it cried, "Child of my enemy, why have you come!"_

_--_

_Back again with the class and in front of him she was standing and talking to them all._

"_Does anyone know what you are going to become?"_

_The children all looked like they knew, but were afraid to say so._

"_What about you?" the woman asked, looking right at him. "John?"_

_Her smile fell and her voice became deeper, and it began to echo in his mind._

"_John? John! John! Master Chief!"_

_--_

"Master Chief Spartan John 117!"

He opened his eyes.

#

"He's awake!"

Light registered on his retinas, and he could vaguely make out shadowy figures.

"Will he recover well construct?" asked a deep voice.

"He should recover fine, provided he gets active as soon as possible. It will give him a chance to use those muscles of his." Said the female voice.

"Good, he'll be able to help us in our search." Said an older voice.

"Doubt it sir, he wasn't with the others, and they disappeared after they hijacked that Covenant cruiser." The female voiced put in.

"Where am I?" he asked. And with that, John 117, the Master Chief sat up and looked around him.

--

He recognised the female figure first. She was glowing blue, with code running lengthways up her body, close cropped holographic hair and she had the voice of the one in his dreams. She smiled at him. "Hello again chief."

"Cortana." he said in recognition.

Beside her was the tall alien in the golden armour he remembered from his dream, the one who had stood by him. The alien reached out his hand to him.

"Well met Spartan."

"Arbiter."

The last man in the room was a tall man, dressed in a white dress uniform with gold braid running over his left shoulder and a peaked cap on his head. Several medals winked at him from the Admirals chest. With a single graceful movement that was also a powerful motion, the Master Chief snapped upright and saluted.

"Admiral Lord Hood, sir! Master Chief John 117 reporting for duty!"

"At ease son." Hood nodded to Cortana and the Arbiter. "I'll wait up in the bridge, let him gather his senses first."

"Got it Admiral."

The Arbiter nodded respectfully to him as he left.

--

The Master Chief sat up and looked around, his brain taking stock of the surrounding in moments, analyzing angles and noting blind spots. The Arbiter gave a small noise in his throat, which the Chief recognised as a chuckle. Sangheili had only ever given those sounds when they were about to kill him, so he assumed that it was a chuckle.

"Arbiter, what are we doing here."

"I believe your construct is the one who should be asked in relation to this. She has been here for longer than you and has also been able to ascertain the situation better."

"We had to manhandle your pod back aboard the Cormorant when we got you out of the wreckage Chief." Cortana began. "For a while I was worried that the crash had killed you but I remembered that I did a scan of your vitals after we hit, that and a scan of your brain signals which showed no changes. So you survived again. Now you're here."

"Where exactly is here?"  
"A secluded section of the hospital wing of the _Redemption_, the lead ship in the _Redemption_ class of Supercarriers, and the flagship of the Combined First Fleet of the New Covenant."

John sat back again. He thought for a moment.

"Where am I?" he asked again and Cortana thought she heard a small element of disbelief enter his voice. He just couldn't get his head around the idea.

"Perhaps he'd better see for himself Arbiter."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. He needs to see for himself, or he won't believe it."

The Arbiter crossed to the wall. At his nod Cortana extinguished the light and slowly the panel slid down to reveal what lay on the other side. The Chief got up and walked over towards it.

--

It was magnificent. Beyond that pane of glass was a wonder, rarely seen, and certainly only seen once or twice by the Chief. Almost a thousand ships were on the other side, all of them flying in formation, or in the case of the fighters, pirouetting around the fleet. Ships of all shapes and sizes were there, from UNSC frigates of the _Dawn_s class, to Assault Carriers of the Covenant. Many thousands of beings inhabited this ship and were involved in the running of it. Former enemies had come together to work in maintaining their alliance, fragile as it was. A _CCS_ class Battlecruiser passed by, moving at a speed higher than the _Redemption_ and headed for the head of the fleet. On a parallel course moved a UNSC carrier and, as the Chief watched, a flight of Longsword fighters took off and joined with a flight of Seraph fighters from one of the Assault Carriers. They flew past the Supercarrier in a dazzling display, a display that likely had been brought on by their former animosity. But now work had to be done, and there was nothing like a joint task force to assuage people's fears.

--

"Tell me about this ship Arbiter." Cortana was back in his head again and the two warriors were walking through the massive ship again like they had done when on the way to the Ark before the final cataclysmic battle.

"The _Redemption_ class were built as a result of the New Covenants trying to work together. It carries improved shields, better armour and a complement of seventy fighters. It also boasts, pulse laser turrets, two located on the sides and one under the belly, a hundred Swordfish missile pods, twenty two Shiva bombs, four plasma torpedo launchers, a swivel MAC mounted dorsally, and the best of all, a Weapon/Anti-Ship Type 12 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Cannon, or as it is known colloquially, the Spartan Cannon. She carries a complement of almost seven hundred thousand, both crew and landing troops, but can be run by a skeleton crew of two hundred and fifty. Six onboard constructs, seven including your own Spartan."

--

They turned a corner and began walking down towards the main hanger bay. The Arbiter continued.

"Also onboard we carry an assault army. Two hundred tanks, including Wraiths, Scorpions and Tarantulas. We have five Scarabs, a full surface air wing and a fleet of other vehicles. The armouries are situated in the base of the ship, along the keel I think you humans call it. There are also foundries, workshops to make repairs as well. Both plasma based weaponry and ballistics, jump packs and vehicles are all repaired down in the foundries. When taken together, this ship could conquer a planet alone and then hold of the subsequent attack single handed."

--

"That's not all Chief," Cortana added from inside his helmet. "This ship carries a Class Seven slipspace engine, constructed from a Shaw-Fujikawa Class Three and a Covenant Type 60 generator. That, plus the development of a Forerunner Dreadnaught engine, means the ship can travel faster than any other ship in the fleet. It generally does not, however as this would result in it being the only ship present on arrival. The ship carries the standard fusion engines, although they are more powerful and are based off a combination of Sangheili and Human engine types. Overall the ship is exactly ten thousand, five hundred metres long, twelve hundred metres wide and nine hundred in height. It took seven years to build."

--

"Seven years! How long was I out?" the Chief's voice hardened at that.

The Arbiter was silent. Cortana didn't answer.

"I think I have a right to know how long I have been missing for."

There was still no answer. Finally Cortana answered him.

"John, we've been gone almost eleven years."

He couldn't believe that. Eleven years of progress had been missed by him at this stage, eleven years. How much had changed in all the time he had been gone? How many more Spartans were still alive? He knew that several of his old team had been listed as missing in action and had just disappeared out of the galaxy. Were they still alive? Had they been found? What about Dr. Halsey? More importantly, what now for a man bred solely for war?"

--

"Chief!" Cortana's voice brought him back to the present. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just… a little shocked by the news Cortana."

"Perhaps you are in need of some exercise Spartan, there is a gym farther down the ship near the medical facilities." The Arbiter advised.

"You could be right Arbiter. But I'm not sure what I should do really…"

"Master Chief to the bridge, Lord Hoods orders!" the voice that came over the intercom reminded the Chief of his days on Reach when he was being trained initially. As the three of them began their walk towards the bridge, the Chief was aware of most of the crew stopping and staring at them as they passed. A lot of the older Marines would stop and salute the Chief and the Arbiter, whilst Elites would press one hand to their chest plates in a sign of respect. Grunts who were wandering around screamed and fled at the sight of the creature from their nightmares.

--

The Command Centre was truly worthy of the name and its size dictated the size of the entire warship. It was huge, with two levels. All power allocation and communications were run from this spot. The platform in the centre was occupied by two figures, Lord Hood and Rtas Vadum, the Ship Master of the carrier. They were both looking at a series of codes and maps that were running on the holographic screen in front of them. As they entered the entire room stood to attention. The Chief was slightly unnerved by this display. Normally a crew wouldn't give him this kind of attention or respect. He felt almost like an artefact, something that had been dug up and was there because of some nostalgic hold on to the past. Lord Hood noticed them.

"Spartan 117 welcome to the _Redemption_, I assume you've gotten a run down on the ship from the Arbiter and Cortana."

"Yes sir."

"Are you familiar with our objective Spartan?" Rtas asked him.

"I have not informed him of our mission yet, brother." The Arbiter put in quickly.

"Well you're going to find out now." Lord Hood turned back to the hologram and the Chief joined him. "We are looking to recover the rest of the missing Spartans. ONI has revealed that they started a third Spartan program, but the last batch were never finished."

"What happened to the other batches?"

"Annihilated on suicide missions!"

"Oh."

"Thing is, they disappeared almost at the same time as the rest of Blue Team, your old comrades. We have reason to suspect that they are all in the same location, due to a message that was intercepted by Cortana. However, when we went to investigate we found nothing but Sentinels and no planet Onyx. It appeared that the entire planet had been destroyed."

Rtas added what he knew to the layout. "Our own records indicate that a large fleet of separatists went to deal with the Spartans, before our alliance could take place. No trace of that fleet was ever recovered, but they headed for the same location. If your comrades are alive, then they should be there, but aren't."

"We were hoping you could let some light on the subject."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there sir. The last time I spoke to any of them was during the First Battle of Earth sir. After that, they disappeared."

"Dr. Halsey went with them. She was the one who sent the transmission, son."

Cortana spoke up at this point. "I remember that message, there was something in it about a major Forerunner artefact at the site. It is possible that this may be the cause of their disappearance. If so I think we should return to the site and begin a more thorough investigation."

Hood smiled. "Yes ma'am. As it happens we were going back anyway. The last time we were there the Sentinels were very hostile. With this ship we will be able to weather any assault by them."

He turned back to the screen as the Ship Master and the Arbiter got into their grav chairs and rose into the air. Rtas gave the order.

"Lock coordinates for the planet Onyx and set the jump to Slipspace!"

* * *

I've managed to get a new paragraph system in place. I hope it works. If you like the story or if you think that it could do with some work, please leave a review. I will answer either next chapter, or by PM. Thank you.


	4. Plague Carriers

As usual I must thank my reviewers for all that they do for me, both in terms of brighteneing my day, and in terms of giving me feedback. For a while I was a bit nervous of this chapter, but I think it turned out okay.

* * *

**Plague Carriers**

Out of the shadows of the foliage a set of figures raced. Similarly armed to the teeth they darted like wraiths towards the buildings their comrades had formerly guarded. A pair crouched beside the pair of bodies and a quick inspection confirmed their fears. Both of the guards were dead, even Yautja did not survive having their heads cut off and their spines ripped out. Which made it all the worse. Only one species was known to do that, and they were that race. One of the new arrivals raised his armoured head and emitted a long low growl. His partner made a series of clicks and grunts that was what their language was. But his meaning was clear. This was worse than anything else that they could possible deal with. The two motioned for the others to go in, no need for stealth anymore, if _they_ had the time to remove heads and spines, then it was no use thinking they were still here. This had been done long ago, long before any of them would have arrived. With a motion they urged the bearers to bring over the stretchers and to bear the warriors away to a burial fit for the hunters. After they were safely away towards the drop ship, the two got up and proceeded inside. On the surface everything seemed normal, but they knew that below ground everything was not the same. Down they descended, into the very bowels of the storehouse, for that is what it was. A giant storehouse, where their most lethal prey was placed. The hunters needed this prey to train their new bloods. The idea to place the Hard Meat on an uninhabited planet where it could be dealt with quickly and easily if there was an uprising was a good one. How this had happened was not for them to know, but for their chief to decide. As it was they had to conduct an investigation into what had happened and bring him the evidence. The elevator stopped. Casters at the ready the guards leaped out into the area and began to scan for enemies. Nothing, and from the scans their masks were capable of, there was nothing in the next room either. Nothing out of pace that is. That's what they all thought until they got in there.

--

Henceforth, for reasons of reader compatibility, the speech of the Yautja will be translated from the series of clicks and roars that it sounds like, to the profound tongue that it is to all who understand.

"How many?"

The Yautja clan Chieftain rose off his throne.

"Five eggs of the Hard Meat are missing, great one."

With a crash of ornate armour the giant Predator sat. This was an utter disaster. "What types?"

"Two we believe are regular ones, two more are those who produce Praetorian as well as ordinary Drones, and the last." The two warriors looked at one another.

"Speak!" the chieftain roared.

"The fifth egg is a Queen producer." was the monotone reply.

With a groan of weariness the Chieftain leaned his great head with its mass of dreadlocks back against the back of the throne. Hard Meat Queens on the loose. There were no words to describe this anarchy. "Do you know what this means, warriors of my people?"

"They are loose again." The greatest and most feared elder of combat in the room, whom shall be known as Hunter, leaned forward out of his seat.

"Correct. All bear witness to this. Loose Hard Meat is the reason we had to destroy them and take the remaining samples away to the secure location. Who knew where it was?"

"All the clan Chiefs did, great one." A voice from the technical Elders side spoke. "We are not privy to the location of the Hard Meat facility."

Hunter was the one who voiced the unspoken comment. "That Bad Blood chief knew."

The Chieftain stiffened. "Do not mention that name again. He is disgraced and we are all familiar with the fact that you failed to stop him Hunter Elder."

There was a guttural growl from the Elder in question. "When a vast number of his clan decided to join him in his rampage, what do you expect from me? I am no sorcerer able to solve everything with a simple wash of power!"

Chairs were vacated as Elders all around stood and roared at him for his brazen speech.

"Silence!" the Chieftain roared over all of them. "Keep the proper level of respect in your voice Hunter or I will tear it out!"

Hunter bowed his head, the Yautja sign of obeisance. "I apologise Great One. I lost my temper. It is a bitter memory."

--

"We are all familiar with what happened then. That fool wanted to go to war with the Covenant and wipe out humanity. He believed we should rule the galaxy. That is not our way, we are hunters, we seek worthy prey, we fight only what can fight back. And we are few in number! We do not have the resources to go to war with a conglomerate of species which are more than capable of wiping us out, and will do so without a moment's hesitation! If any of you believe humans to be any different, you are foolish in our beliefs. The spawn at a faster rate than Hard Meat, number in the trillions, and possess weaponry which, whilst not as good as our own, is capable of doing serious damage. And they too would think nothing of wiping us from the galaxy. Humanity has always been a violent race! I have read that certain of their sacred texts and histories tell us that the progenitors of their race killed their own family over trivial matters. They fight more wars than any other species in galactic history, with the exception of the krogan, who are no more. At the same time they demonstrate an inexplicable talent for survival. Do not underestimate them. A war with them is a futile one. That was not something that the Bad Blood chief would hear." The Chieftain paused in his reading and noted that all the Elders were listening intently. "This Bad Blood wanted war; he wanted revenge for the loss of his son. We are more than just individuals ruling by wishes, we are each our clan, we are our people and we speak for them, not ourselves. But he would not listen. It fell to me to order my Elder Hunter to execute this Bad Blood for the shame he had brought to our race. The siding of his clan with him was an unexpected move. Never before have we had a civil war, not while we roam the galaxy. The eight clans do not like infighting and will destroy any attempts to start one. To try is an immediate Bad Blood offence. But this began a civil war, a war of secrets and ambushes, of treachery. However hard he tries, one clan cannot defeat seven. They have been gone for almost four hundred years, I doubt they will be back."

--

"Great One, I fear that is the case!" the voice belonged to one of the investigators.

"You are?"

"I am called Blitz, Great One."

"What basis do you have for your belief Blitz?"

"All the markings on the bodies were in accordance with the rituals for a good death!"

There was an audible intake of breath. Only Yautja would do something like that, mark their opponent out of respect for his fighting prowess. But then, only a Yautja would take a skull and spine trophy from their victims. Hunter smashed a clawed fist down on the arm of his chair!

"He plans a xenocide!" he said in a growl. "Great One, I would speak before the court."

"Proceed."

Hunter rose and strode with purposeful step out into the centre of the ringed court, into the area with the raised dais upon which the Chieftain sat.

"The Hard Meat reproduces fastest with the human race, that is where he will take the Hard Meat. To their home planet, Earth, there to unleash the plague that is the Xenomorphs. They are recently exhausted from their war with the Covenant and the Flood, they rely heavily on their air given by their Sangheili allies. Without a shadow of a doubt the Bad Blood intends to infect both races at the same time using this technique."

The Chieftain leaned back. "What you say makes sense Hunter, but I doubt it will be towards Earth he will precede first."

"Why is that, Great one?"

The Chieftain beckoned to one of the Subterfuge Elders, who stood.

--

"At present our reconnaissance has revealed that, while the New Covenant has been busy, the humans have also been able to replace a large portion of their destroyed fleet. Their Fifth Fleet also managed to avoid being wiped out and has been the founder of the new fleets. Together with the Sangheili, Unggoy and Mgalekgolo they have founded a new fleet, the First Combined Fleet. This is powerful enough, and carries enough humans to allow them to restart their race in complete safety. That fleet is, in essence, a floating world of mixed races. A massive number of Sangheili are also on the fleet. They would be able to field a big enough army to wipe out the Xenomorphs should they need to fight a battle with them."

"As you can see from this Hunter there are reserves that he will need to deal with before he can launch his war." The Chieftain explained.

"What is more," the Elder continued, "They are headed for the remnants of the planet Onyx, there to seek something, we were unable to decipher that part of the logs. We also know that, what?"

A young technician had approached the Elder, bringing information. Since no one was allowed to disturb the meeting save under dire circumstances, he was allowed to speak with his Elder.

"Are you sure?"

A nod, both of obeisance and of confirmation.

"What is it, Elder?" the Chieftain was insistent.

"Our reports indicate that a conglomerate of other specie still exists. Large parts of the Old Covenant were able to escape retribution and still pose a threat to the New Covenant, namely the Jiralhanae, the San 'Shyuum, the Kig-Yar and the Yanme'e. A few Mgalekgolo still serve them, but they are not as numerous."

"If this is information for the benefit of the humans, why do we need it?" Hunter was slightly bemused.

Looking him squarely in the eye, the Elder spoke. "Because the Bad Blood has joined with them to destroy the humans! As we speak they are on their way to Onyx as well, though they will arrive later than the First Combined."

--

Uproar was the word to describe the reaction. Predator Elders were placing their heads in their hands and shaking their dreadlocks. Others flared their mandibles and roared a loud long roar of rage. It was unthinkable! Yautja did not ally themselves with any other species unless necessity dictated it. Predators and Humans had allied on a couple of occasions, especially when destroying the Xenomorphs who were a threat to all species. Why would the Jiralhanae ally themselves with Predators who would kill them in betrayal as soon as they had a chance?

"This is madness!" One Elder roared, "No self respecting Yautja could contemplate such a thing!"

"He is not self respecting!" Hunter replied in anger, "And both fleets will have similar goals, to destroy the race of men!"

"And then they will turn on us!" screamed another voice.

The Subterfuge Elder replied with a growl, "They will destroy the Old Covenant first, that or force them to be slaves!"

"Silence!"

--

There was silence. The Chieftain had spoken. With a rustle of their ceremonial armour the Elders sat.

"The Bad Blood has begun a campaign we are powerless to stop. Unless we act in accordance. The Elder of the Field Workers is correct, we do not ally. But we do not ally unless we have no choice!" he thumped the table in front of his desk. "Now we have no choice, but to ally. It is our duty. The traitors will be destroyed. The only question is, what do we respond with?"

"We should send a message and let them know we mean no harm, and that we have information. Then we leave them to their fate."

The Chieftain asked of the Subterfuge Elder, "How many ships are in this Brute Fleet?" he used the common human word for the Jiralhanae, a quite apt one that even the Sangheili had taken on.

The Subterfuge looked down at his holographic reports. "Almost two thousand ships, not including the Bad Bloods."

"Combined how many do the New Covenant have?"

"Almost a thousand, but they have better commanders than the Brutes."

"The First Combined alone?"

There was a long pause. "Two hundred at the most, although at the moment they have seven hundred as they are conducting a search. That and the fact that Onyx is surrounded by almost a hundred thousand Forerunner Sentinels."

"I thought the planet had been destroyed?" Hunter asked

The Subterfuge Elder shook his head. "No. It has been demolished, but the core remains. There is something highly odd about that system, but we have not yet been able to decipher it."

The Chieftain was musing over two numbers. "Seven hundred against two thousand."

"They should be able to handle that, Sangheili consider a three to one disadvantage a good fight."

The Chief shot him a look. "But not when they are surprised."

--

"We should go to their assist."

"We will not be in time."

"But we may stave off annihilation."

"Perhaps."

"Hunter?" the Elder looked up. "What do you think?"

Hunter was silent for a time. War would come of this, but the alternative was too terrible to think of. Complete annihilation at the claws of the Hard Meat. He recalled his own initiation process and the terrible struggle he'd had with the Hard Meat, a struggle he had won purely by chance and by prowess. One of his companions had not been so lucky. He had been killed in the struggle, dying honourably, but his comrades had survived. He had heard of the times that the Serpents had almost won. Whole civilisations wiped out to prevent contamination. This time it would be on a galactic scale.

"We will help the humans. Nothing is more important than this, nothing at all. Of primary import is that we stop the Serpents from gaining control. They will need to be destroyed, we cannot allow these things, to get loose. If we do, all will die!"

* * *

As can be seen, all the pieces are coming together. A few of you may be asking, when is Star Wars coming into this? Have no fear, I will have the Galaxy Far Far Away involved soon enough. In roughly the next three chapters to be exact. Leave a review and let me know what you think.


	5. Battle Plans

Update, at last. I'm trying to get it to the point of convergence as soon as possible, but it may take some time. I need to get my maddening life under some semblance of control. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews.

* * *

**Battle Plans**

Shepard awoke. For a moment he looked around the room, his eyes quickly taking in the desk, the door and the various cupboards that held all his stuff. He noticed the ceiling. It was an odd thing for him to dwell on, but he thought that after seeing something for the last, was it eleven months, should be sufficient to get it into his brain. But no, it was something he had rarely noticed. It was always just there, nothing important or interesting about it, but there it was, always over his head. Something to consider, that he had spent all his life onboard a ship and he had never fully realised the significance of a ceiling. It was always there, keeping you safe from the void outside that wanted to suck you out and freeze you, then burst you so that your loved ones could never ever find any remains. He wondered for a brief moment what it was like to live under the stars. Possibly it was similar to this, but instead of a ceiling you saw a sky every morning. For a brief moment Dan considered that sleeping might be both easier and harder under stars. First you were woken up by a chorus of birds singing, then the light of a new day would slowly creep across you, letting its heat start to enliven your limbs. On the downside, you would be colder by nights and wet by the dew every morning. Well, it was nothing compared to the knowledge that just there, beyond that ceiling was the infinite void of space. The final frontier, as he had heard it called before, the last great expanse of nothingness that awaited man. All of it right before him, so to speak, nothing could hold him back if he wanted to go from one end to the other in one big swoop! He chuckled to himself, softly however, silence was so fragile it could be broken by naming it. Joker would certainly love the challenge of taking the ship from one end of the galaxy to the other, just to get a big run up at the Citadel for one of those crazy dive bomb shots he was so fond of. But the pilot was not allowed to do something that crazy under pain of being made to dance. Pilots and their egos, Dan had thought Joker bad, until he'd met some of the other pilots in the Systems Alliance. They loved themselves so much they didn't need the adoration they received. Joker, despite being the most carefree on the ship, was the most mellow pilot Dan had met yet. Riddles and poetry, all of it floating within his mind, never spoken, never heard, just thought. Dan chuckled again to himself. If Ash could hear him now. But softly, softly, he thought as he turned to look at the woman beside him.

--

Ashley Williams was curled up against his side, her entire posture saying that she was enjoying the heat of two entwined bodies. Dan lay there in silence, keeping his breath measured and content, slow so that she wouldn't react to the sudden change. With his left hand he reached out and gently stoked her raven black hair. She was another oddity, this warrior woman. The first time they had met she had blasted a Geth Trooper with her Assault Rifle so fast the thing had buckled under the tension. After that crazy Eden Prime mission she had been the first on hand to see him after his encounter with the Beacon. Dan knew why, she held it her fault that he had been injured in the encounter, although she knew that if he hadn't been on hand to drag her back from the brink, it would have been her, not him, that carried the images, images he had just been strong enough to withstand. A tide of sorrow and pain, a warning of the genocide that was to come. But life had worked out the way it did, and it was he, not her, that carried that burden. For all her self sacrifice Dan knew, that mind altering thing would have destroyed her, much less all the problems that having to do so many mind melding with asari would have brought. Having said that, she had been one of the few to truly help to carry his burden. Even among the crew of his ship, few had truly helped. Garrus and Wrex had been two, but those two spent so much time with Shepard anyway it was no surprise. Dan knew that it was Garrus' being almost a pupil to him, and Wrex being the battle hardened veteran that he was that made them such a great team. The rookie, the confident officer and the old hand that had taken down the greatest threat to civilization the galaxy had ever seen. But when all was said and done, it was Ash he came back to. She who could quote Heaney, Wordsworth and Frost right before she put a projectile into the nearest enemy. An oddity, just like himself. His three humans had always been a mixed bag. Him, the spacer, her, the colonist and Kaidan, the Earthborn. Again Dan remembered Kaidan and the promise he had made to the doomed lieutenant. Again he silently renewed that vow. After that he was distracted by a bright pair of brown eyes looking up at him.

"Hi."

"Hi. I didn't want to wake you."

"Your breathing changed just a little bit."

"And you caught it, yet again." This time Shepard did laugh. "Will I ever be able to catch you off guard?"

Ash shrugged. "Only if I let you." Her voice carried that mischievous melodic sound to it that told him she wasn't finished with last nights, activities.

"Oh well." He kissed her again, this time with a lot more ferocity. "Did you know, apparently scientists believe sex is supposed to make men more charged for a fight?"

She didn't reply instantly. "I don't know, I think sex just makes men ready for anything!"

--

"Officer on deck!" the crew present snapped to attention.

"At ease." Dan passed by at a brisk pace. He headed down to the helm where he knew that Joker would be at his post like he always was. At times Dan wondered if Joker slept there too, but the sight of the pilot making his way to a sleeping pod using both crutches and weak legs had assuaged his doubts. Yes Joker was on duty, watching out of the windows at the myriad ships that darted around the entire Citadel.

"Nervous Joker?"

Joker half turned, but he knew the voice too well to not know who it was. "Nope Commander, right as rain here and ready to go."

"Glad to hear it." Dan slumped down in the chair next to him. "Any word from the Lord Admiral?"

"Are you kidding? He's in the captain's cabin right now!" Joker grinned.

"Dammit!" Dan was up and striding down the walkway at full speed. "How long has he been there?"

"About five minutes." Came the voice that called after him.

Dan marched like he had in boot camp, as fast as he could, down into the cabin that rested behind the raised platform from which he could command. Inside waiting patiently was Lord Admiral Anderson. Also in attendance were Garrus, Liara and Tali.

"Wrex would have been here, but I believe he is also assigned to this ship anyway." Anderson said, correctly deducing what Shepard had been thinking about.

"Yes sir."

Anderson laughed shortly. "You don't need to call me sir, Spectre, you are above my rank."

"Nevertheless, it kind of seems proper that I address you as sir. After all, you are the Lord Admiral in charge of this operation."

"An operation which was your idea Shepard. Besides which, you are the officer who will be leading the charge."

Dan shrugged. "I didn't ask for that. But what has you coming down here anyway sir?"

Anderson paced across the floor, a movement Shepard had long since seen him do when he was musing over what to say. "We are preparing for the battle which we estimate to start later today. Even as we speak I have ordered the ships into their preliminary positions and we are beginning a pre battle systems check."

Dan cut him off. "Why was I not informed of all this?"

Anderson smiled. "I thought I could command this ship well enough. Joker said you were doing some mental preparation for the battle so I thought I might as well let you get yourself properly charged up."

The other three quickly looked away from Dan's rapidly reddening face. "He said that, did he?"

Everyone knew that Anderson had a fairly good idea of what the Commander had been doing. The explanation was quickly accepted by all present.

The door opened and the huge bulk of Urdnot Wrex appeared. "I hope you didn't order food without me." He rumbled in his characteristic gruff voice.

"We weren't sure whether or not you'd prefer the fish grilled or raw?" Tali quickly quipped

--

Wrex had been the most amazed when Shepard had put forward his second part of the crazy scheme, one that had even the diplomatic salarian councillor spitting in rage.

"Lift the genophage?" Tiberius Crognik roared.

"Do you have any idea what you are suggesting Shepard?" Ledra the salarian councillor added.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I am suggesting that you alter the genophage allowing the krogan to reproduce for a certain number of years of their lives, much like humans do."

"The fallout from this could be catastrophic Spectre!" warned Matriarch Avaria.

"This is going to far Shepard!" Udina exclaimed, "In spite of all you have done, you cannot have this request denied."

"We need skilled soldiers, warriors who can handle themselves in combat. Krogan fit all those parameters. Besides, they will easily be able to bolster the forces we already have."

"Absolutely not!" Crognik stated in a level tone, "I am beginning to wonder if it was a good idea on my predecessors part to promote you so fast."

"It's not just my idea Councillor. It is born of necessity. We need better soldiers. Human marines, asari commandoes, salarian STG's, turian troops, none of them hold a candle to the martial prowess of krogan warriors. An added bonus is the way they reproduce so quickly they will be able to keep up the number of warriors available. Look at what they did in the Rachni Wars!"

The debate raged so fiercely, especially when the council had opened out, that it eventually came to a vote. Eventually, it was decide that a certain number of krogan would have an altered form of the genophage implanted. Shepard still couldn't figure out how this was better, but Wrex had bought him, and everyone else in the bar, drinks all night long.

--

"Shepard?"

Dan jerked out of his memories.

"Try not to do that in the heat of battle, will you?" Anderson activated the council message.

"Commander Shepard. We trust you are aware of the impending battle that is upon us. Lord Admiral Anderson is confident that you will be able to lead the fleet in the charge. We hope that you also look upon this idea with favour?"

Dan threw a look at his crew. "I have faith in my crew."

"Good. Then we leave the rest of the plans up to Lord Admiral Anderson. We, along with the remnants of the civilian populace are leaving the station now and will relocate to the Sparta system on the other side of the galaxy. Then the Citadel will be in military hands."

The system winked out and Shepard turned back to his guests. "I assume you will be staying on the ship?"

"If that's alright with you Commander," Liara stood up out of her chair. "We began this fight with you and the _Normandy_, it only seems right that we finish the fight with it."

"She's right Commander," Tali added, "We are with you all the way."

"But only with your permission." Garrus gestured for the two to sit down again. "You are, after all, a Spectre and a military officer. We are civilian officials, but we can hold our own in a fight."

Shepard grinned a little sheepishly. "You're right when it comes to this battle, I do want this to be a reckoning, between the Reapers and us, the ones who were involved in the fight from the beginning!"

Dan turned to Anderson. "What about you sir?"

The Lord Admiral put his hand on his protégé's shoulder. "I want to be aboard the first ship into the attack, right behind you as you lead the charge Shepard."

"Then we will need to alert the Fleet to your presence aboard sir." Dan turned to his crew, just as the door opened and Ashley came in. "Time to get this started then."

"I've already put the fleet on standby Shepard, they are ready to start moving into position for combat."

"Joker!"

"Yes Commander?"

"Put this on the comm. all over the ship will you?"

"Yes sir!"

Dan turned to everyone present. "Alright people, action stations!"

--

The _Normandy_'s intercom system crackled into life at the Commanders voice. Everyone aboard stopped briefly out of respect to listen to their young CO and the instructions he gave them. They all knew Shepard, and they all knew what he had done to get all this going. He had sacrificed his time, his energy, lost friends, almost alienated the council, endured ridicule and distrust and finally, it was paying off.

"You all know of our mission. We are to completely destroy the Reapers invaders in the forthcoming battle. Time is short, so I'll be brief. It's up to us to do our duty here and now, to stop them in their tracks. You all know that we lost a member of this crew to this war already, Lt. Kaidan Alenko, a good officer and a friend. I made him a promise, that I would fight with all I had in me to make sure that the Reapers never touched this galaxy ever again! Today I'm going to fulfil that promise! What I have now is a question for you all, are you going to do you utmost?" he paused. "I know you are, because I've seen you do it before. I want you all to know, the people at home are counting on us and we will succeed. I have the utmost faith in you all! Now let's go kick some metal ass!" Dan smiled broadly at the whoops and cheers that rang through the ship. Leaving the com open, he added as an afterthought. "Move us into position Joker!"

--

With a burst of speed and power, the _Normandy_ sprang into action. As if on cue, the rest of the fleet began to move as well. Dozens of cruisers, battleships, destroyers, frigates, all moving with their own solid purpose. The huge carriers hung back, their flight decks spilling out thousands of fighters, small nimble craft that would be able to overwhelm any opponent, using pure numbers and agility. Out in front of all of the fleet moves a swift single frigate, the _SSV Normandy_, the lead ship of the vanguard. Directly on front of them is the huge Citadel Station, the relay to dark space and the entry point for the Reapers. Only it is no longer a peaceful place, it is the death trap of all ships! Along the sides of the station thousands of heavy weapons emplacements come to life, manned by various species they all swivel to point directly at the space where they assumed the Reapers would spill out. All around the Citadel, the ships began to take up station and point their most powerful cannons at the point of entry. The hazy nebula around the Citadel made it a perfect spot for an ambush. Manoeuvring here was next to impossible so they would have to duke it out a point blank range. The larger Reapers would be completely incapacitated in such confined spaces, while the smaller Alliance Fleet could pound them into muck. The nimble frigates darted around, most following Jokers lead as he was the one who had landed the killing blow on Sovereign, the Reaper who had tried to take the Citadel. Battle was ready to be joined as the twenty thousand strong fleet halted. A literal dome of fire surrounded the citadel, the smaller ships out front, ready to rush in and start firing, the bigger ships ascending in ranks all the way back to the dreadnaughts, huge behemoths that could rip apart shields and were positioned as the back line to prevent any possible escape. On the actual station, a single salarian officer marched up to the Citadel activation post. He reached out a hand and hit the activation button.

* * *

Not one of my more favored chapters, but anyway. More Halo/Predator/Aliens to follow, then we will begin to introduce a little Star Wars


	6. Contact Onyx

Did you know that Mass Effect and Star Wars are linked in three ways. I discovered this after a while. First is that Bioware did KOTOR 1 and Mass Effect, the seond is that Jennifer Hale voiced one of the main characters in both games and the third is the most amazing. The Author Drew Karpyshan wrote the story of Mass Effect and the novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. Anyway, to buisness. Star Wars may be delayed a little bit, but it's coming. by now I think you should be getting an idea of how this is going to work. Thanks to all reviewers and to all readers as well. A note of particular thanks to Jiece18 who has kindly let me borrow the name Hunter for my Predator hero from his story Predator Evil 4. Word of advice, listen to Ghost Love Score by Nightwish when reading. I was when writing.

**Contact Onyx**

"This is amazing."

Lord Hood was standing in the centre of the large room that was what was left of the centre of the planet Onyx. The planet was gone, all that was left was the core, a room with dozens of Forerunner symbols and working computer banks. The revelation that the planet was artificial was a shock to all who were involved. As he spoke, several of the accompanying ONI and Ossoona hackers were slicing into the terminals, or at least were trying.

"It is truly a sight to see, Lord Hood. How long has this been here?" Rtas Vadum was still staring around the room, trying to see if he could see anything that would let him know if this was a sacred place or not.

"Cortana?" the Chief prompted.

Cortana gave a little sigh from the console she was currently plugged into. "We're chatting," she said, referring to the Forerunner AI that was controlling the facility, "But this is indeed a Forerunner facility. It was meant to be a bunker for the remaining Forerunners who were unable to get to the Ark in time. The Halos were the sword, Onyx, the shield, and the Ark, the refuge."

"Is it possible then, Cortana, that there are still Forerunners inside the facility?" the Arbiter asked her. The fact that he referred to her by her name showed his excitement.

Cortana gave a small sad chuckle for the disappointment she was about to inflict. "Sorry Arbiter, none ever made it. This place was never used."

"Until about seven and a half years ago." One of the ONI technicians came over to his commanders.

"How is that known?" the Elite Ship Master asked him.

The ONI tech answered Hood. "The power supply came active that far back and hasn't been activated since. The Sentinels around the base were activated to protect any that got inside."

"Got inside where?" Hood pressed.

"Inside the Rupture, Ship Master." An Ossoona who had been assigned to the event log managed to figure out.

"The Rupture?" Lord Hood began, "What is that?"

This time it was Cortana who answered from the terminal. "It's a Micro Dyson Sphere, a Slipspace rupture containing a landscape and, in essence, a compressed world. It is reachable by entering a portal, although I haven't managed to get it to open yet."

--

The day before the Fleet had come out of Slipspace and immediately began their approach on the Sentinel army in front of them. The Sentinels responded with a series of lancing beams that shot out towards them, impacting off shields and causing damage to the smaller ships. Their lethal beams were not what the problem was truly though, the Fleet was more than capable of tackling them, the problem was finding a way of getting rid of almost five million Sentinels who could, feasibly, gather together and form an anti ship model. To that end a prowler had been dispatched, completely invisible, to fly into their centre and detonate a mag pulse bomb. Meanwhile the _Redemption_ was able to keep any attackers at bay with a series of lethal blasts from both its plasma torpedoes and its MAC. The Spartan Cannon wasn't needed fortunately, or unfortunately as John wanted to see it in action. As soon as the Sentinels froze in space, their formation their downfall as the Prowler detonated the bomb that was designed to disrupt electrical impulses. With the Sentinels completely destabilized the Fleet concentrated on making sure that they didn't come back online again. It was a shooting gallery. With the Fleet otherwise engaged, two hundred ships focused their efforts on scouring the system for the planet remnants. Hood ordered the Fleet into the area that the Sentinels had been guarding so fiercely and concentrated on searching it first. He was right. At the centre was a tiny platform, a thing the leaders had to enter by Phantom. The platform itself suddenly turned into a large room, one that was stuffed full of consoles and other equipment. They had started work right away.

--

Now, they were all but finished. Cortana was the one who had finally convinced the AI to comply after giving him a series of codes she had managed to take off the delta Halo, along with the firing index. This was the information needed. With a shudder that rocked them all where they stood, the Shield World came online. All around the Chief consoles became active, displays lit up and the control room came to life.

"All that's left," Cortana popped up out of the terminal and held out a hand to the Chief, which allowed him to transfer her back into his armour, "is for someone to open the gate. Chief, would you do the honours?"

The Master Chief nodded his assent, his mind somewhat overwhelmed by the thought of seeing his comrades again, his old team. As he walked slowly towards the board which would open this portal to another world, he thought back to when he and his team had been children. What a childhood! Taught to kill from the age of six, it seemed like a story from a dystopia novel. A necessity, yes, but worth it, not really. He would have to enter alone. If any of the others tried to follow him, the Spartans would most likely kill them on sight, they had never heard of the Alliance and it would be a shock. For a brief moment, he wondered what it would be like going into a world like that, and he equally wondered how many were still there. What if time went differently, what if they had died? What then for the last Spartan, where would he go? He couldn't imagine what he could possible do in a life without his friends, his comrades. They would have no life here in peacetime, something he had never thought possible. It had always been the goal, to win and bring back peace, but he had never thought it through. A thought which was worse, would any of them in the World remember him? Would they consider him a traitor, or a fake, a trick to get them to lay down their arms. It was not an encouraging thought. But at that, John snapped out of his despondency. These were his team, his Spartans, and he would be reunited with them. He reached out his hand and pressed the button.

--

Tom, also known as Spartan Tom B292, rose slowly from his work. His back creaked at the exertion and he stretched his arms as he concentrated, slowly moving in a quick and easy way. He was doing some exercises that Dr. Halsey had set for him, keeping himself in motion, never letting himself break off. He was vaguely aware that these exercises were based off something called Tai'chi, but didn't allow himself to be distracted. Instead of this being a meditative exercise, it was instead a means of keeping himself in top condition. His motions slowed and he focused on his next task. Without a word, he took off, sprinting like a bullet towards his target area. While he was nowhere near as fast as Kelly, he was no slowpoke. His movement was fluid and smooth, allowing him maximum agility and speed. No slowing and no stopping he leaped across a small gully and landed in a crouch.

"Bang!" came a female voice off to his side. Tom whirled and saw Linda approaching him, Lucy with her. Linda 058 was a Spartan II, and the best sniper in the galaxy. She was all but impossible to dodge and if she said bang, you were dead.

"Was I that easy?" Tom asked with a small sense of inevitability.

Linda kept her impassive face. "You weren't expecting an attack this soon I assume Tom, otherwise you would be still alive."

Lucy as usual kept her silence. Lucy never spoke, hadn't spoken since that awful battle in which their entire company, Beta Company, had been wiped out in a suicide attack. It was what had urged his former Commander Kurt Ambrose to start putting illegal, but effective, drugs into their mix that had caused their super soldier growth. Whilst never as powerful as a Spartan II they were still a formidable fight. Tom was still pained every time he saw her. She reminded him of his promise to keep her safe at all times, the only other survivor apart from him.

--

At that moment, they were interrupted. A portal began to form out of thin air right beside them. Instantly training took over and the three Spartans fell back to a line of defence. Linda always carried her sniper rifle and she drew it at the point. This long barrelled weapon would be lethal to anyone at close ranges and could carve through three metres of steel if Linda wanted it to. Taking cover in the stream Tom was quickly putting through his head the various ways he was going to get his hands on weapon. What would be even better would be a suit of armour. He was wearing a cut down version of his armour that Dr Halsey had made for them all. Now was an even worse time to be stripped down to his fatigues for his exercise. With three sets of eyes focused on the portal, there were three sets of shocked expressions when a fully armoured Spartan II stepped out of the portal into their midst. He halted and looked around, as if testing the air. Then all of a sudden he spoke.

"I know you're nearby, I can pick you up on my sensors. I can also tell that you are unarmed, save for one. That would be you Linda. You never ever put that rifle down, even when we were kids."

Linda stood slowly, letting the Spartan see her. "The voice is familiar," she began

"The helmet even more so." The Spartan finished. He paused. "I thought it was you."

"It's good to see you again John." Linda traced the outline of a smile across her face, with two fingers, the Spartan smile. John replied with one as well, a real smile of joy across his face beneath his helmet.

"Where are the others?"

Tom and Lucy stood up. For a moment the Spartan seemed to examine them, then he began to stride forward towards them.

"You two I have never seen before. I assume that you are Spartan III's then. I had thought there would be more of you. Where are the others?"

Linda replied by raising her rifle and firing a shot off. After a few minutes the others suddenly began to out of almost nowhere, their speed slackening when they saw who it was.

"John?" Fred asked, seconded almost immediately by Kelly. The other Spartan III's looked at him as if he were a long lost legend, despite the fact that they were as well. However when they saw the other two

"Come on, I have a lot to tell you."

--

While all of this was happening in the Shield world, something was going wrong on the outside. Namely that after the Chief entered the Shield World, twelve Yautja ships entered the system. It may seem like a small number, until you realise that these ships were all huge! They were almost as large as the Super carrier. Immediately they started broadcasting.

"We are getting a message Fleet Master!" the Communications officer of the carrier _Shadow of Intent_ called out.

"Let us hear it."

The message when it came through was a message of dread news. Even as it arrived, it's foretelling happened.

"Warning! You are all in danger of being attacked by the Old Covenant. Bad Bloods are with them, prepare yourselves!"

Slipspace portals opened all around the fleet and dozens of ships began to pour out. Then hundreds, then thousands! It was an attack!

--

"Admiral Lord Hood! Arbiter! We are under attack by Jiralhanae forces. They have arrived in force with almost two thousand ships!"

The three commanders looked at one another, just as the Spartans came out of the portal dressed in armour and carrying weapons. For a brief moment or two they and the Elites attempted to stare one another down before Lord Hood intervened.

"Let's go! We have a battle to win!"

All former animosity forgotten for the moment the group ran to their transports. Within moments they were rushing through the midst of the swirling fighters and ships as they went head to head in the most deadly combat ever seen. Lances of fire from both UNSC vessels and Sangheili collided with the plasma torpedoes of the Jiralhanae. The Cormorant, the natural successor of the Pelican, swung from side to side as a pair of Seraph Covenant fighters came onto its tail, no doubt knowing what the ship was carrying.

"Dodge them pilot!" Hood ordered.

"I can't quite shake them sir, but they can't get a lock. This is Sierra Seabird calling for reinforcements!"

Moments later the ships shook as the Seraphs were slashed apart by a Longsword 4 type fighter. "Got your back sir!" came the voice through the comm.

"Report in pilot?" Hood said with a grin.

"Squadron leader Evan Cutler sir, 75th Combined Squadron assigned to the _Redemption, _the Fires of Justice. Top ace of the Fleet sir, I thought you knew me."

"Just checking pilot. Watch our backs!"

"Will do sir, Sangheili from the _Shadow of Intent_ also providing cover."

--

The Commanders safely into the hanger of the Super Carrier, Evan sung his fighter around and headed straight for the Jiralhanae fleet.

"All fighters form up on me. We will take them head on!"

Several hundred fighters formed up and they drove a wedge deep into the fighter group of the Old Covenant Fleet. Onboard one of_ CCS_ battlecruisers the Ship Master gave a cry of joy when he saw the gap.

"Press into that opening! The focus our fire on the mongrels who dare to attack us!"

As he went forward into the battle, a UNSC carrier, the _Adventures Heart_ saw it and its captain, Captain Murphy ordered his escorts into the attack.

"All fighters give aid! _Victory_, give assistance!"

The destroyer began to charge. Closing the distance it fired its MAC just as the battlecruiser sent out an energy beam. The Jiralhanae ship collapsed under the barrage and its shields flared as they died. Fighters shot in and delivered their payloads of plasma and missiles. The cruiser exploded in massive burst of light and heat. Evan kicked his rudder right and swung on the tail of another Brute fighter. Accompanied by a Sangheili wingman called Xytan he placed a few well aimed rounds into the stern of the fighter and it attempted to pull a tight turn to avoid him, but Xytan put a single torpedo into it. It blew up and was destroyed.

--

Aboard the huge Supercarrier _Revenge_ the Prophet of Humility stared down from his throne. The Jiralhanae Supreme Commander roared at the Predator Chieftain.

"Your kind has given away our surprise attack barbarian, be thankful I do not grant Maladictus here his most fervent wish right now and let him tear you apart!"

The Bad Blood chieftain glowered inwardly at the taunt. He knew that it was the Brutes who had messed this up by coming out of Slipspace in twos and threes instead of in one big assault. But he was outnumbered in this fight and he was also surprised by the Yautja presence. He had thought that they would take longer than this to find him. Hunter! he thought with a growl. That blasted elder was still on his trail. But for now he would need to make some suggestion.

"I did say we should have gone for Earth first, but the Supreme Commander here was determined to tackle the Combined Fleets first. That was his mistake."

With a roar the Brute pointed his Gravity Hammer at the Predator with unhidden hatred. "We should deal with the threat here and now! Why do you hold back your ships! With them we can easily take the _Redemption_!"

Maladictus was an oddity in that he actually was good at tactics, but he still had that Brutish failure to reign in his emotions. Now he had to fight a withdrawal against better prepared forces.

A two tone from the display board showed another ship being disintegrated by the huge Spartan Cannon on the _Redemption_. The Prophet spoke quickly.

"We retreat! We are going to Earth now, where we will release the weapon. Tell the _Sovereign Purpose_ to open a Slipspace portal and we will go forth."

--

What happened next was unbelievable, almost. For not all knew what exactly happened. Slipspace engines distort space and time. They have to, to be able to bypass the normal laws of physics. The_ Sovereign Purpose_ opened its portal. As the other ships did so too, the portal expanded to from one massive portal. It was just unfortunate that at this point a damaged fighter crashed into the _Purpose_ causing damage to the ships engine section, more specifically the Slipspace drive. It still worked, but was altered. The Portal stabilized. This was, in the rush, unnoticed. The _Revenge _entered the portal and Maladictus opened the viewport to the outside. What he saw shocked everyone on the bridge. The tunnel of Slipspace curved away and led in a strange direction. It also worked far faster than any Slipspace jump he had ever seen. In less than ten minutes they had exited the portal and careened down though a strange looking space station, past a shocked looking fleet, if metal can look shocked, this fleet did. The station grabbed at them, unexplainably, and they were propelled through it and out into dark space!

* * *

Crossing over has begun. Alright!


	7. Bewildered

Thanks to all who read and to all who review, even more so. I am indebted to you all. A new chapter, longest one yet, next to the prologue. Enjoy. I decided to speed things up a bit.

* * *

**Bewildered**

"Would someone please explain to me what just happened?" Wrex, Garrus and Ashley were all standing up in the prow of the_ Normandy_ looking out at the massive Citadel station.

"I have no idea." Garrus was as confused as the huge krogan warrior.

Ashley stirred, her crossed arms repositioning themselves across her chest. "A whole week, nothing, then a fleet appears out of nowhere going the wrong way!"

Joker who was seated in his pilots chair behind them spoke up. "Nothing left of them either. All of them vanished."

"How many?" Wrex turned away from the windows and faced him.

"Nearly two thousand. None of them conforming to any design I've ever seen. They just disappeared, off the map, gone. Came out of nowhere too."

Ashley put in again from her window vigil, "None of them even looked like Sovereign. Just came out of nowhere and vanished just as quick."

"Dan should know." Garrus turned as if to head down to the command deck and talk to him there but a word from Ashley stopped him.

"He doesn't know."

Garrus was silent, letting her continue.

"He'd tell me if he knew. He hasn't therefore he doesn't know. No one does. That's why he and Lord Admiral Anderson are down in the captain cabin talking to the council right now, and they're checking databases all over the fleet. We have never come across things like this before."

Silence descended yet again. The fact that none had asked the obvious question bothered all of them, but they didn't act on it. The silence was broken by a timid voice from behind them.

"What were they?"

Tali had come up behind them, unnoticed, and was standing there silent as a wraith.

Wrex grunted. "We don't know either quarian. Those things didn't stay long enough to tell us, or to show us if they were enemies. One moment here, the next gone. We are as much in the dark as you are."

"Nothing like this has ever happened before Tali." Garrus said in a kind tone, "We have no idea how we are going to deal with it. Even the commander doesn't know yet. But, this you can rest on," his voice got a little louder at this, "Whatever comes through there, we will hold our ground!"

"You can knock off with the heroic speeches Garrus. We already know that." Wrex strode off back down the walkway towards the hanger where his krogan warrior squad was stationed.

"You were quoting that Garrus." Ashley smiled where she was standing. "Don't tell me Dan showed you his collection of old films, he never stops going on about them or his music collection."

Garrus was slightly embarrassed. "Eh, no, not quite."

Both females turned to look at him and he cast his eyes down. "I asked for something to keep my mind off my nerves before my appointment as an Executor. He sent me a huge amount of stuff via the net and I watched it all in one night. It was not a good idea. Now I find myself quoting at random."

The two girls looked at one another before bursting out laughing.

##############

"Something's not right about that portal." Tom was a bit unhappy with the environment. The recovered Spartans had been relieved of their weapons and were up on the bridge with the Admiral and the Arbiter. The Master Chief had demonstrated a surprising amount of diplomacy when he had stationed himself between both the Arbiter and the rest of his squad. The Arbiter had given up his seat to the Admiral and he was floating high above their heads. It had all been done in the spirit of friendship, and to show the suspicious Spartans that they meant no harm, but Hood was squirming a little. The chair was a little too big.

"The portal is stable Admiral," the Sangheili Navigator had enough sense to catch the prevailing wind a steer according to it.

"What exactly does that mean Navigator?"

Under the blank stares of the gold faceplates the Navigator was sweating. "It means that it will remain open until it is closed manually sir."

Hood sat back. "That's odd, normally a portal will close in seconds unless a Slipspace engine is keeping it open. Dr Halsey?"

This last point was addressed to the old woman standing with them. She was the closest thing the Spartans had to a mother and she was fiercely protective of them. Only she knew that the Elites who had come to attack them had been Separatists and as such, could have been their allies instead of enemies. And Dante, Holly Will and Kurt would all still be alive. Her rage at this was undeniable, until she had heard that it wasn't until the Arbiter allied with Keyes and Johnson that she had understood. The news would have come too late anyway.

Now she concentrated on the data that she was examining at the console. "I don't quite know what happened Lord Hood. It would appear that a damaged Slipspace drive, opened this and never closed it. Why, I don't know. What I find worse is that this portal doesn't lead anywhere known. The time signature seems to be off as well. When it leads is also a question I would like answered. I get no readings as to whether or not the Brute Fleet was destroyed or saved."

"We also have that large question out there to deal with." The Arbiter pointed out the view to where the Yautja ships hung in space.

"Good point Arbiter, that's why I have ordered them to come over here and speak with us." Hood lowered the chair and got out, walking over to the Spartans. "I have sent a team of marines to investigate their landing, but I expect you IIs to be with me when I go to talk with them. It will help keep order. Several Elites will be present, and they will be also help maintain order. I don't quite know what is going to happen." He turned to the IIIs. "You lot I want to go and get your armour fixed. We also may be able to upgrade it properly."

The IIIs saluted with clean precision and marched out, glaring at the Elites as they did so. Hood waited until they had left the room then turned to his Blue Team.

"What do you make of them?"

Fred looked at the others before he spoke. "They were trained by Kurt 051 sir. We've seen them in combat, they can hold their own."

"Good. We may just need them."

#############

Ashley didn't stir as Dan came walking up to where she was standing by the window. For a moment he wondered where she was staring before he followed her gaze to the shimmering portal.

"What do you make of it?"

"I wonder more where it leads, then what it is."

"I'm not sure. One of our fighters tried to enter, but some kind of magnetic field pushed him back. It can't be entered from the receptacle end. That's what we are."

"It does pose a problem then. A battle could happen on both fronts."

"I doubt it. Nothing has come through in a week. I'm beginning to believe that they aren't coming."

Ashley spun to face him. "What?"

Dan looked her right in the eyes. "You heard exactly what I said. I think they might not be coming."

"What does that mean then, for the fleet?"

Dan looked around carefully, and then led her to a small corner where they wouldn't be overheard. "I think we may have to go through after them."

"Are you insane? If they've put up the kind of resistance we have, then we'll be massacred!"

"That's exactly what Anderson and I agreed. We ought to send only a scout first, then follow through if the coast is clear. We can't stay here for good, can we?"

Ashley looked at him incredulously. "You are mad! How do you expect us to go through?"

"I didn't mean that…"

"Don't!" she cut him off. "I know it will be the _Normandy_ to go through. Who else has the ability to go undetected? Even Sovereign didn't spot us when we used our stealth systems!"

"Ashley!" Dan whisper-shouted. "Enough! I have argued against it. Everyone knows all that this ship has sacrificed in the fight for freedom. No one is asking us to do anything. Anderson is going to take a carrier through. It should be able to fight long enough to turn and head back if anything happens."

She stopped with words stuck in her throat. Quickly she wrapped her arms around his head and kissed him. They held it for about half a minute before she let him go. "You are never going to do something as dangerous as that. If they don't kill you, I will!"

Dan grinned at her. "Looks like you have me well and truly trapped there Ash, but I'd sooner have you kill me then them any day."

############

Ash G099 picked up his new pauldrons and examined them critically. "I don't see what the new thing is with these. They look exactly the same as my last set."

The tech who had given them to him gave him an annoyed frown. "Just put the damn things on will ya! I ain't got all day."

Ash shrugged and got into the rest of his armour. The rest of Team Sabre followed suit.

"Alright people," the head of the armour development came in, "This is your new SPI Mark six armour. We have given you the following upgrades. Listen carefully, I will not repeat them. You now have shields built into your systems, the armour itself is three time denser than your last set, but by increasing the size of the gel layer this takes some of the pressure off you. We replaced your camouflage cells with a system of short term active camouflage that will allow you to four minutes of complete stealth. Not as good as a Stealth Elite, granted, but effective enough for your purpose. Your powered units are still there, but we have increased them to the point that they are three quarters fully powered. You will still be not as good as a II, but you should be good enough to tackle anything less than a Hunter."

"If you're good, you might get one of the Mgalekgolo to teach you the ways of close quarters combat!" said a new voice.

Armoured heads swivelled to stare at the sight of the Elite, unarmoured wearing a leather apron with heavy studs in it. "Who let the split lip in?" asked Tom.

Tension immediately ran high in the room. Behind the Elite, three more Sangheili stood. They looked like they were itching to take revenge for that comment. The IIIs for their part looked like they were going to take the fight to them! The HAD quickly realised the problem and spoke quickly to dispel the negative vibes.

"Boys, this is one of our top Smiths, a true professional. He built your suits."

The Elite bowed, "Voro 'Vankarnet at your service."

The Spartans stood still and the Elite seemed to feel their confusion. Tactfully he stood. "If you ever need your equipment repaired I am always here and would consider it a privilege." He turned and walked out, dispelling the other Sangheili clustered around

Olivia was the first to speak. "Did he just bow to us?"

"It would seem that way O." Mark turned to the HAD.

The officer was seething. "You boys aren't familiar are ya? Well you listen up and listen good! Those Elites might have led the war for loadsa years, might've killed your friends, but they are all that has kept our economy alive all these years! You want to start a war with them again, be my guest, but you'll get no help from us." He sat back against the bench the armour had been on. "Me, I don't like the Elites any more than you do, but I know we need them. They saved our planet from utter extinction, they also carried the burden of battle when we had no ships left! If Lord Hood could work with them, then so can I. You need to decide if you will." He leaned in close to them. "Bear in mind also, that we woulda all died if it hadn't been for the Arbiter. He and the Chief are good friends, they led the fight in the last few months. We don't owe the Elites anything, but they owe us enough. They owe us for all they've done and they are going to fulfil their life debts if they have too!"

He left, leaving the Spartans standing there silent. All five of them sat there with their own private thoughts, musing over the HAD's words. The silence was broken by Mark who sat up, flexed his muscles and then collapsed into doing sixty press ups without a break. With a mighty push he kicked himself back up onto his feet.

"Oh yeah! The Mark is back!"

#############

The massive airlock doors slowly slid back. From where he stood the Marine lieutenant was expecting a series of blasts to permeate the steel, blast himself and his team to oblivion and the ship to be wiped out. It was only natural then, that he was sweating. What he saw nearly petrified him. A huge armoured figure stood in the doorway. It was at least seven feet tall and carried a huge spear. It's face was masked and dozens of thick dreadlocks extended from his head. He growled something at the officer who stood with his mouth open. Slowly the human regained his senses as behind him the marines stood clutching their guns.

"Greetings. If you are a friend you will place any weapons you carry on the table next to the doorway and follow me to the antechamber where my superior will talk with you." He said all this rather fast.

Hunter watched the human squirm and speak rapidly with some amusement. He knew full well that the humans would be terrified and as a result he had demanded to be the first in. Besides, as the Elder in charge of the hunt he would need to be on hand to discuss tactics. His mask automatically searched its human phrasebook and cobbled together a response.

"It is customary for a challenger to also put up his weapons for a meeting under truce. Fear not, I will comply."

Hunter motioned and the Predators all began to remove their weapons. Ten minutes passed before all of them had removed all their gear.

"Now," Hunter strode past the human officer who was staring at the pile of weaponry, most of it enough to kill his squad five time over, "Take us to your leader."

############

Lord Admiral Anderson was not in a happy mood. His discussion with the council and the other leaders of the military alliance had not gone well. Worse still he felt severely in trouble for being to one that had to tell Shepard. What's more Shepard's girlfriend was certain to try and kill him. No he was not happy one little bit. Silently he cursed the Alliance for this assignment. With a hiss of inrushing atmosphere he walked onto the _Normandy _his former ship and now his protégé's ship. With a nod towards Joker, who saluted, Anderson continued down the walk to the captain's cabin. There he stood waiting for Shepard to join him. Shepard entered followed by his combat team. The two humans, the krogan, the turian, the quarian and the asari all walked in and sat down.

"I assume you know of our predicament."

There was a round of nods.

"Well, there is a problem we now face. A ship must go through the Citadel and try to find out what is happening there."

"Who got the job Admiral?" Shepard asked from his seat.

"I hope they have a quick ship if they hope to evade fire." Liara said thoughtfully.

"Or tough enough shields to be able to be able to weather all that fire. I can't imagine what a whole Fleet of Reapers will be like!" Wrex had a short sharp laugh at that.

Garrus nodded slowly. "The captain would have to be a madman to agree to it."

"Nah!" Ashley snorted, "He'd just be ordered to do it and he would be sent by executive order."

Tali sniggered to herself as she threw in a quick joke, "It would have to be an invisible ship."

There was a chorus of laughter. Anderson cringed inwardly.

"Well that's just it Tali," he said slowly, "This ship does in fact have practical invisibility."

"Woah!" Shepard smiled, "Who'd you pick to go sir?"

#############

The Predators faced the Humans and Sangheili across the table. For a minute or two none spoke, the Predators slightly annoyed by the presence of armed troops, the New Covenant slightly intimidated by the size and ferocity of the Predators. Finally the Elder the Chieftain had appointed as Ambassador spoke.

"We mean you no harm. We come bearing the right hand of friendship and peace."

Of course none of the listeners could understand him. Hunter leaned across and spoke quickly to him. He repeated the phrase using his masks translator.

Lord Hood stared at the giant in a slight state of disbelief. Then he got right to the point. "You gave us warning, moments before we were attacked by a fleet of Old Covenant members. What I want to know before anything else happens is, why did you say that and how did you know?"

The Predators all gave a small grimace. This human was sharp as a razor, of that there was no doubt. The Ambassador used his mask to relay the message to the Chieftain, who signalled back that the Ambassador could reveal what they knew.

"The group that attacked you also contained Bad Blood Yautja, a whole clan, almost. For many years now they have been our enemies, a breakaway sect, a curse upon our race. Why we warned you is for this reason. Recently one of our storehouses was raided. A biological weapon of unimaginable danger was stolen. This Bad Blood wants to go to war with your kinds, to destroy them."

"Why do you have these weapons at all?" the Sangheili asked.

"Would you rather they were loose in the galaxy, for any to find and spread?" Hunter barked out.

Rtas responded as vehemently. "You should have destroyed it."

"It doesn't matter." Lord Hood stopped the argument before it got out of hand. "What now matters is how we stop them."

The Ambassador nodded. "We believe that he may have headed towards Earth, to infect the populace there, and to infect the Sangheili remnants."

"We dealt with the Flood, how can this be harder."

Hunter growled at that. "Don't be blind human, the Flood are the least of your worries."

Dr. Halsey who was at the table spoke quietly, but all there heard her. "If they've gone through that portal, they could be at Earth as we speak. I don't know where it leads."

"It's settled then." The Arbiter rose as did Hood. "We follow them. Divide the fleet into two, half to go to Earth directly, the other half to follow them. Let's move."

Hunter rose. "We are accompanying you. We have a debt to be repaid in full against the Bad Blood."

Hood shook his head. "Only three ships. The rest remain here or go with the other fleet."

For a brief space of time the Yautja conversed amongst themselves before the Ambassador nodded. "We will comply."

"Right, Let's go!"

------------------

Within the hour the Fleet had split. Four hundred ships headed for Earth at full speed, whilst the rest entered the portal.

##############

"I cannot believe we got saddled with this job!" Tali stood, glowering in anger, at the prow of the ship.

"Neither can I!" Ashley agreed. The three _Normandy_ girls, as they were popularly joked about, were clustered together. "Where is Shepard so I can kill him!"

"I thought you two were seeing each other?" Liara asked.

Ashley threw her a look. Liara was highly intelligent, sweet natured, a great fighter, beautiful and talented, but she had a slight tendency to be somewhat naïve when it came to relationships. "It's because we're seeing each other that I want to kill him!"

That just caused more problems. "I don't really understand this." Liara shook her head at the intricacies of human relationships.

Tali quietly explained, "Shepard told Ashley he wouldn't do anything this dangerous. She doesn't want to lose him so Ashley will do her best to keep him out of trouble."

"Alright, I still don't fully get it, but I can get a hint of what is going on."

"Look on the bright side. At least Anderson and the _Virmire_ are coming with us." Garrus was standing nearby and overheard a little of their conversation, believing it to be worry about the mission.

Ashley rolled her eyes. Another slow thinker. "As if we want another reminder of Kaidan's death for the commander to worry over. Every time we mention it he gets quiet."

Wrex who happened to walk past on his way to the helm to menace Joker smirked. "You wait till we get to fight Reapers and you'll see what that promise does to Shepard. Hello Twigs!"

Joker burned red at the use of the hated moniker. "Beat it krogan, or you'll wish the genophage had taken you."

"Oooh I'm real scared Clown, what are you going to do?"

Joker flicked off the artificial gravity segment under his feet for a moment, then acceleratd the ship. Wrex went flying!

"This ship is a living extension of my body Wrex, try to mess with me and she gets angry!"

---------------------

Shepards voice came over the comm. "Ready to go Joker?"

"Yes sir!"

"Light her up. Action stations everybody. I know you all hate the fact that we are in the lead on another suicide mission, but we have no choice. We do as we are told. Let's move out!"

The _Normandy_ shot away from the fleet. Accelerating to a top speed the ship, accompanied by the _Virmire_ headed straight for the Citadel. With a surge of energy the Mass Effect kicked in and the ships rocketed forward into Dark Space!

##############

Tom and Mark were watching out through the windows of the medbay as the _Redemption_ went through the portal. Within a minute they were staring out the window at a nebula.

"Where in blazes are we Tom?"

"No idea, wait is that a ship?"

Far out from them, somewhat to the rear another ship hung in space.

"No way, there's a fleet of them!"

Over the comm. they heard the call. "All hands to stations!"

----------------------

Even as the hundreds of crewers leaped into their stations, gunners, techs, marines, the Citadel grabbed the First Combined and threw them in the same direction as the foregone Normandy. None knew it, but at that point right there, destinies converged, fate began to change and on the other side of the void, a galaxy far, far away was about to be changed forever. Nothing could possibly prepare anyone for what happened next.

* * *

There you have it, the first mention of Star Wars. Get ready for a big clash!


	8. Allies of Convenience

Sorry this took so long, but I had assignments and tests to do in college. Anyway, this took me twice as long as the last, purely because it's the longest chapter I've ever written. My thanks to all reviewers. Enjoy the new entry.

* * *

**Allies of Convenience**

What lies beyond the reaches of the galaxy? It has inspired many questions, most of which have no answer. Well, those questions had an answer now. As Shepard stared out across the wide, wide expanse of dark space he knew. People also asked, what does the galaxy look like from the outside? Again, much supposition has been established in relation to this question. Once again Shepard had that answer as well. The galaxy looks like a flat line of light, with a bubble of brighter light at the centre. What lies in dark space? Nothing. Nothing at all.

"There's nothing here." Garrus and Wrex said at almost the exact same time, in almost the exact flat tone of voice.

Shepard couldn't have agreed more. Where all the estimates said there should be a huge battle fleet of Reapers, was nothing more than a huge expanse of nothing. Pure and utter nothing.

"There should at least be a set of docks here." Admiral Anderson stated from the seat near the Galaxy map.

"Pressly," Shepard called back to the Navigator, "Run a series of long range scans. Let me know if you get anything larger than a cookie."

XO Pressly nodded wordlessly and began his work.

Admiral Anderson opened the long range communications. "_SSV Virmire_, this is Admiral Anderson onboard the _Normandy,_ begin deploying long range fighters and set them to begin scouting as far ahead of the ship as possible. Also start long range scans. If you get anything at all, send a ship to investigate."

"Yes sir."

Shepard went up and tapped Joker on the shoulder lightly to get his attention from the vast expanse. "What is it Joker?"

Joker was silent for a moment. "This way-out space sir, it's not like anything anyone's seen before. We will probably never see it again. But that's not just it sir." Joker turned to look at him. "The Reapers could be out there anywhere. You could spend all your life searching and never find a thing. Then one day, you get back here and they're waiting for you."

"Point taken Joker. Let me know if you see anything." Shepard rose to leave.

"It's almost not worth becoming a pilot Commander, there's nothing out here to fly around, a child could do this easily."

---------------------------------

Before long the citadel station they had come through had receded somewhat, although it was still in range of the sensors. It was surreal, flying with nothing to measure the fact that you were flying. The _Normandy_ was burning through the skies at a huge speed of nearly seventy thousand kilometres an hour, the _Virmire_ nearly matching that speed despite its bulk. And yet, to Ashley Williams, there was no sensation of movement. Even in space there were little telltale signs that noted you were flying, the changing position of stars was the major one, but here. Here there was nothing, not even the light of stars to tell. She had often wondered what a wilderness felt like, since there were few left. Despite all her experiences, with some of the less populated planets of the galaxy, nothing could prepare a person for this. This was the great wilderness, the great barren expanse. It was frightening more than anything else. If anything else, this was probably similar to the worst torture that could ever be felt. Nothingness, in every direction, no signs of life, no signs of companionship completely alone. She was so caught up she never noticed the soft steps that walked up behind her. When the hand landed on her shoulder she almost jumped.

"It's just me Ash."

"You scared the life out of me Dan."

Since privacy was very restricted on the _Normandy_ affection between the two was very limited. Most of the crew had figured out that their commander and their gunnery chief were an item, but regardless, public affection was restricted between the two. So all that Shepard could do was to put his arm briefly around her shoulders and give her a squeeze.

"It's so big." She muttered to herself.

"Joker had something similar to say. They could be anywhere out there and we'd never know until the last possible moment."

"If they're even here."

Dan looked at her, but here eyes remained fixed on the display screen. "Your meaning?" He prompted.

"If they were expecting an attack they would have been waiting in ambush around the Relay."

"So they aren't here at all then."

"It's just a guess."

"Pretty good guess. From a pretty girl."

That brought a smile to her grim face. "I'm more than just a pretty face you know."

"Oh I know. You pretty good looking below the neck too." Dan smirked to himself and waited for the inevitable sneaky remark back to him about the fact that he maybe he should watch himself if he planned to keep his pretty girl on his arm.

Ash opened her mouth to reply when the intercom chimed.

"Commander, we got a contact!"

-------------------------------------------

It was a big one, huge. It was far, far bigger than the Citadel Station. But that is exactly what it was, a Space Station. Shepard could only gape at the sight of it. So could any on the bridge. The first to recover was Wrex who shut his maw with a crash and hmmphed about the slow reaction time of his friends. Joker was next, because he had to slow the ship down before they crashed into the structure. Shepard quickly recovered as soon as the ship moved and he instantly started issuing orders.

"All combat personnel report for duty! All hands to stations! Ground team, prepare for disembarkation."

Anderson added his own orders to the list, mostly to the _Virmire_ which was on hand.

"Hold position and prepare to render assistance. Launch combat fighters, but remain out of reach of the station. Cover us if anything goes wrong."

He shut the comm. down and turned to look Shepard in the eye. "Let's pray this goes well."

Suddenly the ship began to swerve violently as red flashes shot past the window of the frigate.

"Punch it Joker!" Shepard ordered.

In response the pilot pushed the ship to its limit. In a matter of moments, the _Normandy_ was skimming the surface looking for a spot to put down.

"There!" Liara pointed at an alcove that was waiting ahead. "That looks like a hanger."

"Thanks sister!" Joker said in a tight voice. He was having to dodge mad red flashes using his best tricks.

The ship rocked suddenly, almost throwing the frigate off course, before it righted and slid into the hanger safely.

"What the blazes was that?" Anderson asked.

"Impact from one of those lasers." Joker responded, unhappily, "Shields held, though they're down thirty percent."

"Right." Shepard turned and strode for his room. "I'm heading in. All of you are coming with me."

----------------------------------------------------

The last of the robots collapsed onto the ground, smoked and died. Shepard hoisted the injured marine onto his feet.

"Get him back aboard the ship and into medical treatment immediately."

The second the team was on deck they had been rushed by these quadruped robots which had attempted to kill him and his landing group. The firefight had been short and sharp. Using armour piercing ammunition cubes, they had quickly cut through the casing. Any shields the robots carried were bypassed by the projectiles, obviously designed to stop energy beams.

"Anything?" Garrus asked Tali who was attempting to decipher one of the robots brains with her hand held computer.

"They're using a code I can't work out, and a language I can't understand." She shook her head as she rose.

"Vicious things." Liara was unusually vehement as she had an arm treated for minor burns, a result of a small flamethrower built into the robot chassis.

"These guys must be only the first line of defence, we'll have to keep moving inward." Shepard slid his rifle up and over his shoulder into its holster where it compacted automatically. "Wrex you got point."

"Hey Shepard." Wrex gestured slowly. "Look at this."

In front of him was a computer terminal, or at least what Shepard suspected was a terminal. It was roughly circular, with a high rising back that had to be activated by hand.

"Think it could be hacked?"

"Maybe."

"What do you think Tali."

"Give me a second."

It took even less. As soon as she touched it Tali was admitted and was confronted with a series of unfamiliar characters. After attempting to get into the machine using command entries, a panel opened and she linked her own computer into the breach.

"It's downloading." She said with a gasp.

The terminal hummed to life. A message appeared on its screen.

View security cameras, view system commands, view functions, log out.

Tali breathed out a breath she didn't realised she had been holding. "Commander, there are over fifty thousand security camera's on this level alone. Most of the show rooms that are guarded by security robots. This entire facility is automated!"

"Makes sense." Shepard drew his shotgun and slipped armour piercing material into the breach. "The Reapers are sentient machines, this place must be too."

"Let's go kill em all!" Wrex growled.

"Hold on Commander." Tali stared and then laughed quietly to herself. Within three clicks of the dials she stepped back and retrieved her computer.

Immediately all the doors slid open and the robot that had been waiting behind the door shut down. Everyone looked at Tali who shrugged. "System overrides. Shut down all security droids and open all security doors. I even downloaded a map to the main control chambers."

They all gaped. Finally Wrex chuckled. "Finally, the quarian is good for something."

---------------------------------

The team of the _Normandy_ walked through the huge station, for the most part awed by the huge expanse. Liara was silently contemplating coming back here after the war and starting her own school of archaeology here on this, since it was probably older than the Protheans. Imagine, the builders of Reapers had been here. How had they managed to create sentient creature within metal. There had to be a way. If she could perhaps harness the power, think of the building that they could do. Wrex realised that this was the place where he could regenerate the krogan race, safe here, out of reach of all possible enemies, where they could rebuild the krogan and then take revenge on the galaxy for all they had suffered. Garrus realised that he could have a series of sentient machines built, robots like those drones out there, and take them out with him. They could deal with the enemies that had begun to plague his home sector. He could be a hero. Ashley knew that out here she and Dan were far out of reach of the regulations of the military. She could also redeem her grandfathers name. Williams Station. What better way to save the family pride. Tali recognized that this place was free of all disease and detriment that had plagued her people. Imagine it, a place where engineering and freedom met. The quarian race would be able to settle here and they could be happy, finally able to take off these masks and live in freedom, safe from the Geth.

-------------------------------------

Suddenly Dan stopped. "Joker?"

The rest realised that they had walked out of range of the communicators. The power of the station cut them off from the outside. Instantly they prepared for an ambush, both mentally and physically

"Blast it." Dan used a light curse as he felt the situation didn't really require a serious one. "Right let's get moving, stay sharp people!"

Dan spoke mostly to himself. While walking he has started thinking about how he could best the Reapers using this machine here, using the Station or whatever it was as a means of fighting the Reapers without succumbing to huge sentient casualties. Minimal losses and two machines fought it out. But it was a foolish notion and he knew it. If you started along that idea, it was quite possible you'd never stop. Time to get back to work.

---------------------------------

The control room doors opened. All six of them went in, guns covering every aspect of the room, trying to make sure that there were no enemies in the room. Nothing.

"Okay Tali, start slicing." Shepard walked over to the screens as the quarian Machinist started her operation on the computers. The others crowded around him, keeping their eyes peeled and making sure nothing would disturb them.

"On screen Commander." Tali pushed herself away from the console and looked up at the screen. Everyone else followed her example.

Images began to gather on the screen, all of them noting the singular words which had come up.

"English?"

"Yes Commander, after I put in my computer it must have learned the language through that."

"I see." Shepard watched as the display showed the entire area. It was, as many had thought, a shipyard of a sort, producing replacement parts for the Reaper Fleet. It was supposed to work off the "Force" of sentients captured from the galaxy, whatever that was.

"So that's why they needed slaves every fifty thousand years." Wrex rumbled in his odd tone.

Shepard answered with a mute nod. The next entry caught his eye.

"Last entry a failure." He read aloud, "Will return to Lehon to prepare for re-evaluation and reparation."

"Lehon?" Garrus raised an eyebrow.

"Never heard of it Commander." Ashley stated, "And I've been on all the backwater planet that there are out there."

"No mention in any Prothean artefacts either Commander." Liara was adamant about that.

"Tali, see if you can track their movement." Shepard asked of the quarian.

"Yes Commander. Coming up on screen now."

It showed the route to a new Citadel Relay.

"Dan that's less than twenty minutes in FTL." Ashley breathed.

A message flashed up on the screen as well. Slipspace wake detected.

"What in the world?" Garrus couldn't understand this.

Liara suddenly squeaked with excitement. "The fleet that came through the portal and disappeared into the Citadel, that's where they must have gone!"

"Oh no. They've followed the Reapers." Wrex put his claws over his face. "I almost feel sorry for them."

"Only almost Wrex?" Ashley grinned, her valkyrie mentality showing through.

"Not in the slightest. I just hope they kill enough of the Reapers to make our lives easier." Wrex retorted.

"We'd better get back to the ship and prepare to follow them." Shepard turned and walked out the door and down the corridor. As he turned the corner he suddenly found himself nose-to-barrel with an assault rifle. An assault rifle held by a green armoured giant with a golden visor.

################

As the six Spartans escorted the ground team of the _Normandy_ back towards the docking bay John wondered about this new development. They had arrived in this area and the first thing their sensors had told them was that they were at least four million lightyears from the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. The second thing their sensors told them was that there was a large structure seven million kilometres at their twelve o clock. Lastly the sensors told them that they were not the only vessels in that sector. All three hundred ships had made the relay in one piece and they were all ready for another crack at their enemies. So, with this ship suddenly on the radar they began their approach. The first Longsword and Seraph reconnaissance of the ship had revealed that it was a ship of unknown design and of unknown make. It was not one of the Old Covenant. A closer scan of the ship had revealed its design to be that of an old carrier from the first age of space exploration. Nearly four hundred years old. Unfortunately at that time the Covenant had only just begun expansion out of the Orion Arm and were unaware of any such ships. Acting quickly Admiral Hood had opened communications with the vessel, surprised to find that it was the _SSV Virmire_, under the command of Lord Admiral Anderson. Hood was more than just surprised. Confidential enquiry with Dr. Halsey did reveal that a Slipspace engine could theoretically cause someone to arrive in the wrong timeline, but it was unheard of for someone to arrive in a random part of space four hundred years into their past. Anderson had been a favourite figure of Hoods, a pioneer in terms of officers speaking their mind to the politicians, a great officer and a skilled tactician. He had been one of the "Greats," as they were called. The fact that D. John Shepard was also here, along with the famous _Normandy_ was a greater shock. They had boarded the _Virmire_, and taken control of the ship after the captain had gotten suspicious of them. Boarding the Normandy was something more of a trial, but the quick and easiest way had been to find another docking bay and make you way over. Men in Navy blues had infiltrated the ship and within moments they had taken it completely.

---------------------------------------------------

Now John 117 was escorting one of the greatest, and more importantly long dead, heroes of his race. The irony struck him quite sharply. Here he was, a hero of his time, escorting the hero of a past time to a rendezvous with the commanders of both their times. Master Chief turned his head and noticed that the other Spartan IIIs were staring at the group with amazement. Then he quickly noticed that Shepard was looking at him. It had only been Shepards quietly spoken command for his forces to stand down back in the corridor that stopped the krogan battlemaster with him from ripping the lot of them apart with his powers. Those powers which had been available to them in the past were long since gone, one of the major losses from that era. Shepard spoke suddenly, breaking the silence and ripping the Master Chief out of his reverie.

"Name and rank soldier!"

Automatically and without thinking he replied, "Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra 117." Immediately he felt the weight of his sentence weigh down on him with all the fury of the stares that the others were giving him.

"Nice going Chief."

"I'm sorry K. But I have to ask if you can wring all that training we did out of your system."

"So I take it that you guys are members of the human race. I don't know of any other species that uses those kind of monikers and uses initials when talking to each other in code."

John winced. Shepard was as good as they said he was. A ruthless investigator who could easily pick the facts out of a simple sentence and construe a whole line of information out of it. Fortunately the Arbiter saved them all.

"I see your mission was successful Spartans."

"Better than successful Arbiter, we managed to get them all without having to fire a single shot." John replied.

"Better and better. Come, Lord Hood awaits their arrival along with the Admiral Anderson. He is anxious to see you and to discuss the situation with all of you." The Arbiter turned and walked back into the Normandy.

"When did we start working with aliens like that?" Ash asked of him.

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It was only when they reached the _Normandy_ that they started to get any answers. The tight lipped Spartans said no more than was required. The imposing Elites elicited fewer questions, especially from the turian Garrus. The entire ground team was seated in their normal seats and joining them were Dr Halsey, Lord Hood, Admiral Anderson, Rtas Vadum and the Predator Elder, Hunter, who had insisted on being present. The only guards present were UNSC Marines, all of whom were carrying their weapons on their shoulders, the Master Chief and the Arbiter.

"I assume," began Dr. Halsey, "That you have many questions you would like answered…"

"Namely, who are you people?" Ashley broke in.

"Do you usually allow your subordinates to speak out of hand human?" The Ship Master was half amused and half irritated.

"These are my command team, their questions are my questions and I respect their counsel." Shepards response was cool and quiet, a voice that was totally under the control of the user.

"I see." The Elite was impressed by the man's speech.

"But the question still stands." Anderson added for emphasis, "Who and what are you?"

Lord Hood laughed quietly to himself. "Never thought I'd be introducing myself as a member of the Covenant, be it New or Old."

"The Covenant hmm?" The turian Executor was aware of the name. "I was unaware that the Covenant contained your species Commander."

Shepard frowned. "It doesn't."

The Arbiter spoke quickly to move the conversation on. He was aware of the outbreaking hostilities between the Turian Hierarchy and the Covenant that were happening in this time and he had no wish for immediate hostilities with the newcomers, who used special powers. "We are the First Combined Fleet of the New Covenant. We are on the trail of the Old Covenant Remnant battle fleet which was last seen heading this way."

Shepard spoke quickly to forestall more questions. "Do they create a Slipspace wake?"

Hood was surprised. "Yeah they do, that's the type of engines we use."

"We know where they went."

"Where?" Dr Halsey asked

Shepard raised a hand to gain their attention "I want the answer to my first question first if you don't mind."

------------------------------------

"As the Arbiter said, we are the First Combined Fleet of the New Covenant. In the Covenant are Sangheili, Humans, Unggoy and Mgalekgolo. Or as the Humans call them, Elites, men Grunts and Hunters. That is the what. The why we have just told you and the only other piece of information that you need to know is that we are on the trail of the Old Covenant Remnant. They seek the destruction of mankind and will stop at nothing to achieve it."

All eyes swivelled to look at Hunter who had just stepped into the room.

Shepard gestured slightly. "Who is this?"

"My name, in your tongue human, is Hunter. I am the Elder of the Hunt of the 3rd Clan of the Yautja."

Wrex looked more than a little nonplussed by the long titles. "You got a shorter version of that name?"

Hunter growled to himself slightly before he answered, "The Humans gave us the very apt name of Predators." He said a little disdainfully.

"Really?" asked Wrex in his sarcastic voice, "Well they gave my kind the very apt name of "very hard to kill", you might want to keep that in mind if you want animosity."

"Wrex." Shepard said, a note of warning in his voice.

Hunter ignored him, or rather he took note but decided not to do anything about it. Yet. "We are here because a rogue clan, what we call Bad Bloods, joined with the Old Covenant, bringing with them a biological weapon called in the human language, the Xenomorphs!"

"What?" Rtas was on his feet in a moment. "You never said the Xenomorphs were involved, we thought they disappeared from the galaxy almost a hundred years ago."

"That is because we made them disappear!" Hunter said with a grim satisfaction. "We use them for training our New Bloods, so we confined them to a single planet."

"If that is the case, we must proceed with all haste." Anderson stated. "There is an old saying, "We are all going the same way, so why not travel together" it worked well all throughout our history."

Hood nodded. All through life on his world Humans had always done better in goups. Besides more allies, especially someone like Shepard and his team, wouldn't hurt.

----------------------------

Now with both fleets in agreement the united front moved off. The _Normandy_ lifted out of the hanger and moved with an incredible speed towards the rest of the fleet. The Arbiter and the Spartans had elected to remain on the ship for a while to familiarise themselves with the people they were going to be working with. Already Ashley, Linda and Kelly seemed to be working well as a team. The Gunnery Chief was happily showing them the guns she had available to her. Dan would have laughed if he had seen her, talking excitedly about sniper and assault rifles like other women talked about shoes. But at that point he was with the Master Chief and the Arbiter discussing tactics. The Predator Hunter was also present, but he was listening and not speaking. Wrex was down in the hanger mercilessly drilling the marines under his command in the upcoming battle. The fact that he had several newbies to play with was wonderful for him. Garrus was as usual tinkering with the mako, although he was working with both Tali and Fred who was interested in the heavy firepower of the era and wanted to know how it would fare against a wraith. The Spartan III's were busying themselves with Liara, who didn't quite realise she had attracted the interest of the three boys in the group, none of whom had ever seen an asari before. As a new battle group the Systems Alliance, the Yautja clan and the New Covenant all passed through the designated Home Route Citadel Relay. Within seconds, they were gone.

#################

On the other end of the relay the Galactic Empire began its invasion of the Rebel base on Hoth.

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It's official. Star Wars is in the next chapter. Anyway, I made several references in that chapter, kudos to anyone who can tell what they were. Please Read and review.


	9. Cold Encounters

Finally. The first Star Wars chapter. This one starts just after the Battle of Hoth. Thanks for all the reviews and to all those who made this a fave or a story alert.

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**Cold Encounters**

This room was silent. All but empty it was a bare, cold and darkened room. Darkness pervaded it, not just from the blinds across the windows, but rather from within the room itself. Light itself seemed to be corrupted here in this presence of great evil. Circulated atmosphere cycled endlessly, a testament to the occupier's paranoia. But then again, didn't Sith always try to murder each other? Emperor Palpatine opened his eyes. His eerie yellow gaze slid slowly around the room that he used solely for his dark meditation. While he was in here none disturbed him, lest they suffer the wrath of the Dark side. And it was the Dark side he had felt. There was no possible way it was Lord Vader, he was on Hoth wiping out Rebels to his heart's desire, his obsession with hunting them having turned into a frenzy. That battle was not the disturbance he had felt, and Vader was not likely to attempt a coup just yet. Without an apprentice at his side he would not be capable of defeating the Emperor, and Vader had only recently killed his last near apprentice. So, if it was not his erstwhile apprentice, then who was it. It was no Jedi, of that he was certain; no Jedi ever came this close to the Dark if they could help it. The only one who had had the ability to do so, Galen Marek had vanished, not heard from since the Death Star and the Emperors spies had not uncovered his location. It was most definitely not the Rebellion, they spouted all that peace and freedom and democracy nonsense that was the trademark of foolish former senators like Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis. They were not his concern, not right now. This was far too important to worry about just yet. The Emperor closed his eyes and tried to remember what he had sensed.

------------------------------

It was a cold, calculating evil. Silent, foreboding and watchful. Somewhere out on the Outer Rim, it was waiting. It was beyond his ability to reconcile, the sense was one of death, but the perpetrators were not alive, in the conventional sense. He could feel their pulsating signatures in the Force, but they lacked the sense of living that made all creatures had. Whatever they were he could feel their dangerous intent. For a brief moment he wondered if they were related to the Sith, but shook off that thought easily. The Sith had returned in force to the galaxy two and a half thousand years ago, roughly. They had lost their empire through internal fighting only to be finally finished off by Darth Bane a thousand years ago on Ruusan. Now he was certain that the only Sith left in the galaxy were he and his apprentice. But these newcomers felt different. Not Sith, not truly, but a cold calculating evil nonetheless. That had only been the first part of the vision. It had not been a true vision, but he had felt the disturbance in the Force and he knew something was about to happen. Palpatine recalled the second half of his sense. A sudden and violent change in the texture of the Force, centred around Hoth. It was not Lord Vader and it was not the Rebellion. Whatever it was it was nothing like he had ever felt before. With his attention on that part of the Galaxy, he doubted that Lord Vader had felt it. Vader was far too wrapped up in his anger and his battle against the Rebellion to have noticed something of the like and none of his officers were Force Sensitive at all. By and large Vader was blind to the disturbance, momentarily of course. He had probably sensed it, but could have no idea what it meant or really have cared right now. He was too engrossed in extermination for that. For a brief moment the Emperor wondered if Vader was zealous for some other reason, had he found himself another apprentice, he wondered. Vader seemed to be becoming too enthralled by the idea of toppling him from his throne, but since Marek he hadn't been able to find an apprentice of that calibre. Palpatine laughed quietly to himself. For a while he had had a new apprentice, a young boy named Tao, but the boy hadn't been able to touch the Dark Side in the way that Vader wanted so Vader had sent him away. Palpatine laughed out loud as he remembered the look on Vader's face when he had shown Vader the boy, telling him to kill him or he would kill Vader and take the boy for his new apprentice. Vader had been forced to kill him, despite his regret at the fact and then the Emperor had forced him to bury the child himself. Vader had been furious with him. However, at this point in time, with these new forces building, he could not afford to have similar "disagreements" with Vader. Vader was still an effective tool and he was a skilled warrior.

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The second sets of feelings were mixed. A turbulent mix of animalistic rage, fanatical devotion and simmering evil. There was also something else lurking in the shadows with those as well, something primal, something base, but made of pure malice and calculating insatiable hunger. For a brief moment he thought he had come across the holocron of Darth Nihilus again , the Lord of Hunger, that same hunger had burned in him as well, despite it just being a mere echo of his long dead powers. But they had disappeared from the area almost as soon as they had arrived. It was a lethal brew, and Palpatine was hard pressed to be unable to link the two events. There was no fate, there was the Force, there was no luck, there was the Force. Constantly the Jedi had told each other this, but they had failed to realise what exactly that meant for the future. Palpatine knew the answer, the future is always in motion, so be ready to seize it by the throat and carve your own path to destiny. These two were linked; the Force told him so, so he followed his philosophy. He had already decided to crush this threat to his power the moment it manifested itself, but before he could do so he needed information. It was part of the Sith philosophy that had been passed down from Master to apprentice, not least from his master to himself. Know your enemy, so you know best how to destroy him.

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But who to send to investigate? Vader was already in the area, but he was consumed by a desire for battle, more so for desire to find that thrice dammed Alderaanian Princess, Leia Organa, the last of the Organa's and as difficult as they had all been. He would not be swayed from that pursuit. If Palpatine ordered him to do a search of the area for information Vader would, no doubt, do a rapid cursory search before blithely saying there was nothing and go chasing after rebels again. Besides Vader was not known for tact, he would kill as soon as he found anything, a bludgeoning hammer that crushed all threats to the Empire. No he was not suitable for this task at all. Palpatine turned his thoughts to his other servants who could possibly fulfil the task. The Inquisitors, led by their leader Jerec, they were skilled and their training called for the ability to question and interrogate. For a few brief moments the Emperor considered this, then discarded it. While they were good at their tasks Inquisitors were not suited. While they were all Force Sensitive and able to fight well, they were not adept at capturing an enemy. A Super Star Destroyer was not the best choice to avoid notice and Jerec was adverse to the thought of going anywhere without his new flagship. For that same reason the Prophets of the Dark Side were equally unsuited. Most had delusions of grandeur anyway. While still fanatically loyal to him, they caused problems with Vader and now was not the time for another one of their cloning incidents. Besides, he had them working on another project. At that his attention turned to his elites, the Emperors Hands. Force Sensitive, every one of them, aptly suited to any tasks he gave them, perfect for infiltration, they were his scalpel where Vader was a vibrosword. Acting alone, they could crack any safe and find anyone that managed to escape Vader's grip. One of them had unveiled a conspiracy to him merely seven months ago. Palpatine had the utmost faith in them and was fully aware that they had every skill necessary to perform this task. Blackhole would be best to send, until he remembered where Blackhole was. Keeping an eye on his Byss facility, Agent Blackhole was one of the more adept of the Hands, an experienced spy and an equally experienced administrator, he was more important where he was. Perhaps a better choice would be Arden Lyn, Sarcev Quest, Roganda Imerson or Jeng Droga. Palpatine smiled and stretched out with his senses to locate them and to briefly touch their minds with his own. Through the mental link he was able to locate them all, but to his displeasure none were within reach of the system in the time frame he needed. Imerson, Quest and Droga were all busy with important assignments anyway and Lyn was on the other side of the galaxy. However Palpatine still smiled. He had one other Hand who was perfect for the job, as well as being loyal to him absolutely. Best of all she was within range and the task she was performing was nowhere near worthy of her skills. She had one flaw, and that was that she believed herself special in his eyes. Palpatine allowed himself a small chuckle at that. A delusion but a useful one. Her service was valuable and for the moment that's what held her apart from the rest. Palpatine walked over to his throne, sat and opened his mental link to Mara Jade.

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Seated in his hovel on the planet Dagobah Yoda, last surviving member of the Jedi Masters and former Grand Master of the Jedi Order was stone still with his spoon halfway to his lips. He had been sitting like that for the past hour. Ever since he had felt the lethal touch of the Dark Side upon the galaxy he had been stone still. It was like nothing he had ever experienced. Darkness was gathering on the edges of the galaxy, and it would show neither side mercy in its quest to dominate all life. He could feel the darkness watching the galaxy, awaiting the proper time to strike. But he could sense something else. Neither were alive in the real true sense of the word, and in truth he could only sense the effect the second had on the space it passed through. The other, the first, he could feel them, but they too lacked the sense of life.

"You are correct."

Two shimmering Force Ghosts appeared before him, both instantly recognisable and both powerful and wise masters of the Jedi Order. Yoda nodded to them both as he set the spoon down carefully into his now cold stew.

"Master Qui Gon, Master Obi-Wan. Felt it too, you have?"

Both nodded, Obi-Wan slowly and Qui Gon quickly.

"It is like fire and ice, and rage. There is more to this than any could possibly imagine." Qui Gon said, his face still betraying his deep thought in regards to this development.

"Spoken to the boy, have you?" Yoda asked of Obi-Wan who nodded.

"I have, he intends to come to this planet to seek Master Yoda." Obi-Wan gave a wry smile, similar to the one he was used to giving in his younger years. His smile fell away as he thought of the boy, the son of his former apprentice and his own apprentice if only for a short time. "What is coming will be a great trial for him."

"If succeed he does, then worthy of the knight rank he will be."

Qui-Gon frowned slightly at that. "We cannot tell if this will be a long lived conflict, or a short one. The future is always in motion."

Yoda had to agree to that.

Obi-Wan added what he needed to. "This war will make or break him. He will face many hardships throughout its course, so we must prepare him for it."

Qui-Gon turned to Yoda having heard the wisdom in his words. "We need to train him to be the best he can be. He is well able to master the training. But I will say no more on that note, it would be best if another did."

------------------------------

Another figure faded into existence on his right and Yoda could only smile as he saw the familiar robes and mask of Revan, a great hero of the Old Republic era. Revan's own story was a great tale of redemption and most apprentices learned it, while in the Temple. In the years before the Purge however, the story had become a fable, a fact which may have influenced many Jedi and their behaviour.

"Master Revan."

Revan nodded in greeting to him. "Master Yoda. I must speak with you about the training that Luke should receive. And about how we need to deal with Darth Vader."

Yoda smiled, "Beyond redemption, he is not. Recognize that now, I do. However, not remembering this before, do I regret."

Beneath the mask Revan smiled. "There is still time." He said, "Vader knows of his sons existence and pursues his closest friends in the hopes of tracking him down through them. In the conflict to come, Vader will be forced to defend his children and to work with them."

The other three Masters nodded. "And of the boy himself?"

Revan smiled. "He will not be alone I think. There will be others, yet he will be the first. What he learns he must pass on. As a result we must train him to be more than just a Jedi Knight, he must be trained for a Mastership. With the others that will follow him he will become first amongst equals, and first of the new Order."

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Darth Vader strode through the frozen halls of Hoth. The base was still shaking from the blast impacts of the AT-AT's that were continuing to encircle the base. Silently and in the privacy of his own mask Vader cursed the Rebels and their resilience. At the head of a column of snowtroopers he marched into the hangers, only to find the _Millennium Falcon_ lifting slowly off and heading into the atmosphere, ready to escape the planet and Darth Vader's clutches. Vader whirled to one of his lieutenants.

"Contact the _Executor_ and tell them that the _Millennium Falcon_ will be leaving the planet shortly. Tell the Fleet to give chase." His voice was throbbing with anger, "And I want them alive! No excuses if they are harmed."

As the trooper scrambled to call in the signal, Vader whirled again. He couldn't feel Luke Skywalker anywhere. He cursed Obi-Wan up and down the sides of his mind.

"Continue your search men. Find any Rebels and bring them to me for questioning."

As soon as they had left on their mission Vader smashed the nearest crate across the room with a touch of the Dark Side of the Force swirling in his anger. Damn that son of a drabble Ozzel! He wished he were still alive, just so he could make him suffer. As Vader began to pace all over the hanger he randomly crushed pieces of equipment just to destroy something. Then for a moment, he paused. With heavy booted footsteps he walked over to the crushed crate and examined it. Typhon coils, they were used in the repair of hyperdrive generators. Hidden eyes swept over the area around where the _Falcon_ had been landed. There were tools scattered all over the place and Vader summoned one of them to his hand. A welder. This could prove interesting. What's more it confirmed his suspicions.

"Lord Vader, we have a prisoner." The two snowtroopers held up the injured medic.

Without a word Vader picked him up in a Force Grip and snapped his spine. Then he threw him out of the hanger bay.

"Gather the troops and the vehicles." He rumbled, "The _Falcon_ will not have gotten far."

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Luke Skywalker struggled through the snow towards the spot where he had prearranged for his X-Wing fighter to be hidden. Luke had always intended to be the last off the planet, mostly in an attempt to give Leia and Han a chance to get away. As he stumbled along he could feel the adrenaline slipping from his chest and could sense the sadness at the loss of so many friends that day. Dak was one that would always stick in his mind. The young gunner was only a recent addition to the Rogues, as evidenced by his overeager attitude. Now he was dead, and Luke would have to hold another memorial service for another downed squadron member. The last one had been only seven weeks ago, during one of Rogue Squadrons raids. The raid was a success, but Ric had been shot down as they were fleeing the battle. The older man had only been with them for a few months too, a native of Naboo and a skilled pilot. His death had been a blow for most of the Rogues, all of whom had not expected it. Now they were going to have to have another funeral, this time for a rookie who'd never had a chance to fight in space combat at all. A roar from behind caused Luke to throw a glance over his shoulder, and the _Millennium Falcon_ soared past and climbed swiftly into the air.

"I hope Han fixed the hyperdrive." Luke muttered under his breath.

But if they were only just gone, that meant that the base was empty and it was only a matter of time until the Imperials decided that they should search the surrounding area for any survivors. Luke turned and hurried through the snow, his boots leaving deep impressions in the crisp snow surface. He crested the hill and stumbled down to where the last transport and his X-wing were located. In a few minutes, he was airbourne and headed for the stars.

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The X-wing soared into space, the powerful engines driving it forward at a huge rate. R2-D2, safely ensconced in his pod behind Luke's canopy twittered out a question.

"There's nothing wrong R2, just setting a new course." Luke answered.

Artoo warbled an exclamation.

Luke focused on his controls. "We're not going to regroup with the others," Artoo twooed at that, "We're going to the Dagobah sys… what in the world!"

Even Luke's untapped Force potential felt it. A surge in the Force, as if something was lighting up. A quick scan of the area showed no Imperials, so the X-wing turned and began scouting. There were seven planets in the Hoth system, with only one being remotely habitable, the rest just didn't have atmosphere. Luke could still feel something, but he wasn't quite sure what it was.

"R2, run a quick scan of the area and tell me if you spot anything."

R2 warbled a question.

"How should I know what you should be looking for, this is the Force we're talking about!"

R2 wheedled something else.

"Okay, I'm sorry, it's just," Luke peered out into the galaxy from his cockpit, "it felt really weird. Like there was suddenly a huge bright light in the Force that just flared into existence right over there."

There was another whoop from Artoo.

"You got that right. Keep your eyes open. If you see anything at all, let me know."

Text began to scroll across Luke's monitor and he looked at it, a cold feeling of dread slowly creeping into his chest.

Luke, the last planet's moon is gone. I'm detecting a massive power surge from that area.

"Oh no." the boy said quietly under his breath.

They rounded the planets horizon and Luke nearly had a heart attack.

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Hoth VII had a huge moon. It was nearly as big as a planet itself and for the entire time the Rebellion had been on Hoth their scientists had wondered what exactly had been there to allow a moon of such a size to remain a such a lose orbit to the planet. Now Luke saw why. Chunks of ice floated free of what lay underneath and hanging in the moons place, was a giant Space Station. While it was not the size of the Death Star it was frightening enough. But what was more frightening was the fleet waiting in front of it. None of the ships there were in any way similar to the ships he had seen while he had been in the galaxy. What was even worse was that his database itself, which had had more information than he did, was telling him constantly that it found no match. R2-D2 screamed a warning and Luke twisted around and began dodging projectile and plasma fire from a dozen fighters. Within a second however, the firing stopped and Luke sensed a change from the pursuing fighters. It was not a sense of hostility, as such, but it was a sense of caution and a sense of determination not to let him escape. Ha, he thought to himself, try it.

"Artoo, prepare for hyperspace jump to the Dagobah coordinates." The fighters swerved around the X-wing and blocked his jump path.

"Sithspit!" Luke hauled on the stick and the X-wing banked hard to the left and tried to get past the blockade. The result was a dive by one of the fighters to cut off that route. In essence Luke could try and escape, but he would crash into one of them in the process, killing himself in the process. Luke did the only thing he could in the circumstances.

"Artoo. Download a copy of all the information on the nav computer, and then fry it. Let me know when you've done that and then shut yourself down. I'll shut down all power after that."

After a minute or two, R2 tootled a confirmation to Luke, along with a note of warning, and then shut himself down. Luke smiled at the note and then switched off the controls as a tractor beam hit him.

Whatever you want from me, he thought grimly, I'll make sure you never get it.

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There you have it. The first meeting is going to take place in the next chapter. A little note in regards to an questions about why Vader hasn't twigged about the new arrivals. He is so focused on chasing down the Rebels that he wouldn't be aware of anything else. Palpatine will notice because he's using a form of battle meditation to control his forces, thus he needs his senses fully expanded. Oh yeah, and Mara Jade is in this. She's too cool to be left out. Another note, Tao did exist and Vader did have to kill him. The conspiracy is the main plotline of Allegiance by Timothy Zahn, an excellent book you should read it. Stay tuned and leave me a review.


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